


from Atlas, with love

by starrelia



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Reverse Roles, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Male Character, Canon Disabled Character, Canon Rewrite, Cisgender, Disabled Character, Emotional Manipulation, M/M, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-06-02 22:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6585475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrelia/pseuds/starrelia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been a year since Rhys's death, and Atlas hasn't really been the same without him. Everyone's clawing at each other to be number one, to be the next big bad CEO, and Jack isn't going to pretend that he also doesn't want the position of CEO; but that also <i>doesn't</i> mean he has no sense of dignity. Atlas has gone to shit, and Jack is definitely going to fix it.</p><p>So when his chance to become CEO is swiped away because Vasquez has a vault key then, well, he's just going to have to steal his deal, isn't he?</p><p> </p><p>Or, in other words, reverse AU where Rhys is CEO of Atlas, Hyperion is no more, and Jack is a lowly programmer who looks up to Rhys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Night

**Author's Note:**

> **Edit: Please do not under any circumstances roleplay the Rhys from this AU, roleplay the Jack from this AU, or use this plot in anything without asking me first. Please do not make fanart of this without asking either.**
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> So to those of you who _had_ read this when I first posted this, I am very sorry for deleting this. I had a moment of severe and awful anxiety that led to an irrational action which caused me to delete most of my fics. The reason behind the anxiety was a (fandom-specific) post I read that helped to make me immediately hate my writing for a week straight, and I couldn't handle the negativity of my own mind for much longer. Of course, I did feel awfully stupid after deleting my work because... yeah, but anyway. This fic is being reposted!
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> As well as reposting the reverse AU, however, I'm going to be adding in a few lines and fixing up anything that I think needs to be fixed up before I post these. Please note that I do not have a beta and I am not interested in one.

Atlas has gone to _god damn shit._ Jack thinks as he looks around, wandering past the show-offs and assholes that try to walk with the confidence that Rhys once had. All of them are shitbags, and Jack doesn’t spare any of them a second glance as he makes his way over to the floor’s shitty cafeteria, his prosthetic and cybernetic hands clenching into tight fists as he weaves his way past scumbags and slimeballs, grabs his meal, and goes back to weaving over to his usual spot.

Once he’s at his usual seat, Jack sighs and falls into the uncomfortable yet wholly familiar chair, and he hunches up slightly. He groans and rubs at the back of his neck, wondering when the hell Nisha is going to get here so he can have someone to bitch to and then take with him to go murdering or something.

Bloodshed is, thank god, very commonplace in Hesperides and Jack is nothing if not murderous. He didn’t spend hours upon hours in the gym for _nothing,_ after all. Though, it may be going to _shit_ with all the work that is being dumped onto him ever since Rhys’s death.

At the thought of the CEO’s untimely death, his mood immediately sours and he looks out the window of the giant space station to stare at Pandora below. From up here, he has to admit…

It almost looks beautiful. If it wasn’t such a damn death planet, Jack is sure it’d be a fantastic place to visit—maybe even live in, because it really does look so… well, unreal is to be expected in space. But still. He prods at the food on the table with his fork, not all that enthused to eat the crap that lowly programmers like him are given, and he nearly jolts when someone large and heavy falls next to him.

He turns to see Wilhelm holding a pathetically tiny tray in his hands, hunched over and looking like an uncomfortable elephant, and Jack snorts. “What shoved up your ass today, WillyBill?” Jack says as he finally stabs the food in front of him and shoves it into his mouth.

God. It tastes like death and tears. Soon, however, he’s sure that he can get this shit-tasting food outta his mouth and go and eat some of the expensive shit the people higher up eat. Maybe actually eat some of the gourmet food that Rhys used to be so _particular_ about.

Food from Promethea and Hera; the rich and rare stuff from there. Maybe he can even get the ingredients sent to him so that he can cook for himself something _nice_ and proper and none of the fast stuff.

“Vasquez.” Wilhelm says simply before he’s very slowly and daintily eating. That man is far too big for his own good, Jack thinks as he shoves another bit of food into his mouth. This one tastes like vomit. Like, week old vomit. Ugh. Though, the awful taste may be because of Vasquez’s name. He looks at Wilhelm pointedly and the man continues to, very straight-faced, shove those globules of torment into his mouth. “Tried to ruin my cybernetics. _Again._ ”

Jack snorts. “Man just doesn’t _give up_ does he?” He grumbles out and Wilhelm just shrugs. “You seen Nisha around?”

“Went after Vasquez. She’ll be here.” Wilhelm replies and Jack rolls his eyes and decides to stop eating the slop that’ll kill him and, instead, stab the dumb thing. “Anger management’ll do you good.” Wilhelm says blankly and Jack shoots him a glare, and proceeds to stab his food _even harder._

The other man just shakes his head at that. They sit in a few more moments of silence before Jack stabs through his plastic plate, turns around to face Wilhelm again, and starts talking. “I don’t know how much more _sucking up_ to Tassiter I can _freaking take_ before I snap and just—just—“ he makes hand motions, having forgotten what he wants to do, and Wilhelm murmurs ‘strangle’ to him. “Yeah, _strangle_ the guy!”

Not saying anything, Wilhelm continues to slowly eat his food and he stares at Jack from the corner of his eyes. That is enough incentive for the programmer to keep rambling about Tassiter. “I just—that guy is so _full of himself—_ “

“You are too.”

“—and he keeps calling me JOHN?”

“You referred to Vasquez as Vachezo for a long time.”

 “That’s nowhere _near_ my actual name!”

“It’s nowhere near his either.”

He slams his fist down on the table, his plate trying its hardest to move in response to the violent slamming. “Will you _shut up_ and let me complain already?” Wilhelm shrugs and Jack just continues. “ _Anyway,_ as I was _saying_ before big, tall, and dummy interrupted—“

Another voice that isn’t Wilhelm’s interrupts him, and Jack straightens up when he hears her. “Yadda yadda, Tassiter’s a bitch.” Nisha slides in on the table, across them both, and Jack turns around to face her and she grins at the elated look on his face. “Right, boys, guess who just secured us a very shady Eridium mining deal?”

She brings her hands up and points her thumbs at herself. “This gal. _You,_ handsome, can thank me later when you’re rich and kickin’ Tassiter’s teeth in.” She points at Jack as she says that and he has to keep from outwardly cheering.

“Of course, it’s super shady, like I said-“

“As it _should_ be.” Jack interjects, and Nisha gives him a blank stare.

With an eyeroll, she continues talking. “-so we don’t have a lotta time to pull this off. Now, of course, I have a plan.” Wilhelm gingerly removes the fork from Jack’s food and drags it over to his side to eat, and Jack himself is leaning in to listen to Nisha eagerly.

There’s a shark’s grin on her face that Jack shares and Wilhelm just doesn’t care about.

They have a _plan_.

* * *

It _works,_ and the ex-CEO’s personal assistants – Vaughn and Yvette, a friendly yet homicidal duo – are the ones to force his quick promotion. Enough to actually _take over Tassiter’s position, fuck yes._ Nisha’s busy victoriously gloating about their… well, victory as she and Jack walk the halls to his new office.

She’s still walking when Jack stops at one of the Atlas motivational posters.

Standing tall with a sweet smile and half-lidded eyes is the now-dead Atlas CEO.  His chrome hand, sleek and smooth with navy and rose lines, is extending out while his flesh one is on his hip. The upside down ‘v’ of his scar is prominent on his face, an ethereal beauty that stands as a reminder, and mismatched eyes stare warmly at the onlookers.

He’s dressed in black and gold, his lower half cut off, and Jack finds himself reaching out to the welcoming hand before he lets it drop. _‘Dead before you really got to meet him,’_ Jack thinks before he’s following after Nisha.

“You got anythin’ in plan for what you’re gonna get when you get all this _money?_ I think I’m gonna get some Jakobs. Always wanted to use one of ‘em—maybe _two._ ”

“You can’t dualwield guns, Nish,” Jack chirps in, his mood far too good to be ruined by the fact that Rhys is, well, dead. His boots clack nicely against the floor, sounding like absolute power, and Nisha just shrugs her shoulders. “I think… I’m gonna make _statues_ of-“

“You’re gonna say yourself.”

“-myself.”

“Thought so.” Nisha’s laughing easily then, and Jack’s grinning widely with her enthusiasm as she sways and bounces. “We’re here, tiger.” She puts her hands on her hips as they come to a stop before the large door.

Behind there is his new job, his new income, his new _life. This_ is where he’s gonna make it big, gonna get back at Pandora for the shit they pulled, give his daughter a good life, and get the opportunity to torture his grandma to death.

He can’t wait.

Nisha’s looking up at him, a toothy grin on her face. “Make sure to humiliate Tassiter for me—oh, and enjoy your new office. If you ain’t callin’ me in or other lovelies to christen your office, then I am going to be so disappointed in you.”

“You know I’d _never_ want to disappoint you in something like that.” Jack snickers as he says that, and Nisha gives him a finger gun before she’s shooing him into the office. The doors open and close, and Jack’s looking back before forward to-

See that… the name plate on the desk is…

… Hugo. Vasquez.

**_The fuck?_ **

* * *

So, turns out, Vasquez has managed to swipe the deal right from under his nose. Jack has to keep himself from punching Vasquez in the face because he’s sure that both his hands would break through his skull. Jack isn’t… known for holding back in fistfights, even more so now that both arms aren’t flesh.

Now, how did _Vasquez,_ slimiest of all slimes, even manage to get the position that Jack deserves?

The asshole secured a vault key, and Jack is going to steal that vault key right from under his _fucking nose_ and he’s going to prove to those two—two assholes [barely] running the company that he deserves this more than shithead here.

“This is dumb.” Wilhelm says bluntly, even as he’s working with his clunky looking cybernetic hands to secure a vehicle and loaders for Jack and Nisha.

Jack just sneers at Wilhelm, and he can’t help but get angrier when the man barely responds. “He demoted me to _janitor!_ Janitor, Willy! _I can’t be janitor!”_

He’s silent for a bit before shrugging. “Guess not.”

“We’re going to ruin that asshole’s life.” Nisha says, voice terribly calm, and Wilhelm isn’t reacting to either of their anger. “We have ten million dollars, and we have the car ready?”

“Yep.”

“Good. Jack, _let’s go._ We’re gonna get us _a vault key.”_

* * *

Jack really hates Pandora. It’s the worst place. No, really, it is. It’s an area of tears and sadness mixed with Sand. Lots and lots of Sand. He hates it so much it’s like a living person. Sand is now a proper noun to him.

He really hates bandits and Sand. No wonder Rhys, once upon a time, wanted to eradicate the bandits from Pandora and make it a safe haven. They are barely there for three minutes before Wilhelm is sighing as he’s sending them a loader bot.

Atlas silver and pink stands proudly amongst the Sand, arms at its side, and Jack nearly tears his hair out when he realises he has to manually program his bastard.

Why can’t anything ever be easy on this death planet? He hates Pandora and Sand so much.

He nearly loses Nisha, who is screaming creative ways on how she’s going to kill these bandits, when greaseface starts to drive away with her attached to the ten million dollars. He also nearly loses the ten million dollars and loader bot, who he has _some_ weird fondness for, but somehow things work out.

Except now he’s surrounded by creepy dead animals and _actual corpses_. “I am going to need so much therapy for this. And probably another visit to the doctors for my aneurysm.” He says, and Nisha is still spitting up sand so she doesn’t answer him really. “I hate this planet so much.”

She lets out a hacking cough that sounds suspiciously like an agreement and Jack is forcing himself up. He rubs at his head and grumbles to himself, a bit ticked off that his perfect hair is ruined, and he sighs. “At least we’re in the world of curiosities.” He says as he digistructs one of the water bottles he packed to give to Nisha.

He doesn’t expect the water bottle back, so he begins exploring the place. Surely the meeting is around here… somewhere, right? Right.

Of course, to get to the meeting, he has to be surprised by some tiny _crazy asshole_ that Jack nearly smacks unconscious in immediate response. “Do _not_ do that! What the _hell, you bastard!?”_ Jack yells, and the person—Shade? Right, his ECHOeye says his name is Shade—just looks at him with the biggest, most apologetic eyes ever.

“Oh I am—so sorry, _so sorry,_ gentlegals and men, but you see, this establishment is closed! Quite, quite closed. So unless you-“

“We’re supposed to meet someone here. For a deal. _Ten mill._ ” Nisha interrupts, voice sounding scratchy yet considerably better, and Jack shrugs.

After that, they’re finally escorted to the two folks they have to make a deal with.

A princess named August, and some badass named Sasha. Somehow, Jack has a feeling this isn’t going to go right.

* * *

… It doesn’t, and for once Jack wish he isn’t always right. He nearly gets killed, the vault key is a fake and, apparently, princess here had no clue the vault key is fake. So, really, pretty great deal so far. Nearly get killed by psychos as Big Bad Psycho ™ just crashes in and steals the ten million dollars.

Nisha is fuming. He has to drag her away from this shit and to the caravan that apparently belonged to No Longer Badass, Hat Lady and Shady Old Man. His ECHOeye can’t figure out how this old heap of junk works, because wow this thing is _so damn old_ it’s been obsolete for years, and Nisha nearly gets thrown out by Sasha because the woman is waving a grenade around.

So… things are going pretty damn great. Everything is a mess of yelling and negotiations, lots of _“SERIOUSLY YOU’LL REGRET KILLING US”_ and _“OH YEAH? PROVE IT”_ and a good few _“WE DON’T NEED YOU FOR THE CASE” “NO, NO YOU DO” “OH YEAH? WHY?” “CAN YOU TRACK IT?” “… NO!”._

It’s honestly starting to give Jack a headache, because they’re all _yelling_ and pretty damn angry and his throat is raw from screaming and dehydration and he doesn’t think Sasha—Sasha, right?—is gonna let him drink some water.

“The ID drive!” Nisha yells out at some point, “plug it in and we’ll be able to track the case!” Jack stares at the gun staring him square in the face, then looks back to Nisha, then back down to the gun—

His shoulders slump in defeat and Hat Lady – Fiona, his ECHOeye supplies helpfully – and shrugs. “Fine, fine, okay, just make her put the damn gun down and get in here.” Sasha’s yanking Nisha in, and he’s almost proud of her for the restraint he sees in her form.

Almost. He slowly lowers his hand to retrieve the ID drive from his pocket – ugh, Dr. Nakayama’s too, the creepazoid of the century – and he brings it up to the port in his neck. He jolts from the sparks that fly out of it and Sasha is staring at him. “What’re you waitin’ for?”

“She’s got a point. What _are_ you waiting for?” Fiona, the sister, supplies and Jack just glares.

“Just tryin’ to make the mood all _dramatique,_ ” Jack snarks out before he exhales heavily. He presses the ID drive in—

**_OHSHITFUCKSHITFUCKEVERYTHINGHURTSOHFUCKFUCKFUCK._ **

 

...

 

 

“ _Who are you supposed to be?”_

_“Oh—do you think you can—“_

_“Hah. Yeah, yeah okay.”_

_“I’ll humour you.”_

 

 

...

 

Jack, understandably, passes out after that little plug in incident. Which is… embarrassing. God damn it; he remembers making an ugly noise too and Jack wants to groan into his palms right now. He’s grateful, at least, that Rhys isn’t alive because then he won’t have to deal with the possibility that the man may be monitoring his position on Pandora.

Rumours has—had it that he used to watch every one of his employees when they went to Pandora for whatever reason. Something to do with a doppelganger gone missing. Jack doesn’t really know, because for all his thinking, that doesn’t really matter.

Because when he comes to, he’s at and in a death rally and separated from Nisha.

And he’s not _actually_ in the death rally. He’s not even driving one of the deadly as shit _cars_ here. Of all the good things in Pandora and Jack _doesn’t_ get the opportunity to horribly murder some bandits!?

What is _wrong_ with this world?!

Even worse is that _Sasha_ just won’t stop pestering him about what Atlas did. “Listen, lady,” Jack begins.

“It’s _Sasha,_ ” she hisses out.

“Yeah, whatever,” Jack grouches back, “listen, I didn’t come down here to listen to you bitch at me. I came down here to buy a vault key, that turned out to be a _fake—_ “

Sasha rolls her eyes. “UGH.”

“ _Don’t ugh me, you asshole!_ Anyway—you could’ve made this _soooo easy_ on us but you just… didn’t. You didn’t; you had to— _god damn it!_ ” He smacks his port hard when it sparks again, and Jack swears he hears laughter in the back of his head. “Just let me _hack this, fuck you!”_

At his outburst at the machine in front of him, Sasha just stares at him like he’s going crazy.

Probably is, but that isn’t important. What _is_ important is that his system is still messing up, and he ends up unleashing a shit ton of stuff onto them before he actually manages to get them to safety.

He hates Pandora.

At least he still has the victory of activating the elevator, and Jack sprints away from Sasha when he realises it’s moving without them. To his absolute displeasure, Sasha manages to escape the skags on the ground but… well…

Skags can jump up really high. Like. **_Really high._** They both tense up when one of them starts to jump towards them – one that his eye **very helpfully** identifies as a young alpha skag – and Jack is getting ready to accept his fate when the skag just… dies midair.

Flickering into existence is the vault hunter, Zer0, and he watches as they turn around to face Sasha and him after he just flicks the skag off his sword.

“Holy shit, that was **badass.** ” Jack says without meaning to, and Zer0 is flashing him a heart on their helmet, and Jack is _definitely_ not embarrassed that his mouth ran against his will.

Damn it, what the hell is it with him and badasses? This is one of the hunters that helped _kill Rhys!_

…

They’re _still_ badass though, and having them around is some small comfort as they attack Bossanova – Bossanova? Bossanova! – and manage to somewhat save them from this mess.

 

 

And then Jack has to cut a skag in half to get the case out and he’s sure he is going to have a lot of shit to tell his therapist, one of which is _I got covered in skag blood and intestines and I think I’m scarred for life._

He hates Pandora. Has he said that already? Too bad. He still hates Pandora.

* * *

“Oh fooooo _AAAAAAA-_ “ Jack yells as he falls unceremoniously into the abandoned Hyperion base, his entire body screaming at him for the plummet and Jack flinches at the terrible squish of his bloody clothes. Why does this world hate him so much? What has he done wrong?

Someone’s laughing at him; it’s a sweet sound, bordering on mocking, at his pain and his fall, and Jack keeps smacking himself in the forehead to try and get rid of that sound. Soon enough, he begins to hear Nisha’s loud laughter and Jack forces himself up on aching legs.

“ _Can’t_ feel my spine, oh god, great. Great. I’m—surrounded by guns. Just—god.”

Sasha jumps down at the mention of guns, and Fiona and Nisha follow after. Everyone’s getting their own thing; Nisha’s grabbing a Hyperion pistol and Sasha is busy gawking over a rare, “vintage” Hyperion SMG.

Fiona, however, is walking side by side with him to a button. “So, guess we’re _both_ taking this, huh?” She says with a charming grin on her face and Jack has to hold back the urge to glare at her. He reaches his hand out, instead, and Fiona scrambles to press the button at the same time as him.

The moment they press it, a podium appears with two separate parts. Of course, Jack takes the large one and Fiona takes the small one. He’s tempted to just mug her, but he’s unable to do that when the two parts attach to each other and Jack’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Right, Nish, we need a crow-“ he’s interrupted when a map appears, projected from the two connecting objects, and Jack is backing away with Fiona to stare up at the map.

It’s… a projection of Pandora.

“That’s a vault symbol.” Nisha says, eyes wide and staring at the map, and she and Sasha share a look before they look back at the map.

Fiona’s the next one to speak. “Is… that a map?”

 _“Oh, I don’t know, darling. Is that a map? I can’t seem to tell- both my eyes stopped working, you see, and since you seem like **such a leader,** maybe you’d know?” _A sarcastically sweet voice says, and Jack tenses up when he recognises that voice.

 _“This, honey,”_ next to him, something gentle pink flickers and builds itself from blocks, and Jack stares at the form that is leaning against him, an elbow on his shoulder, and Jack’s jaw drops, _“is a map to a vault, provided to you of course by our beloved Hyperion.”_

_“You’re both going to take me there.”_

That’s Rhys.

 

_That’s Rhys._

**_Oh holy shit._ **

 

_“And then, of course… **I’m going to kill you.”**_

“Holy _shit!”_ Jack cries out and he jerks away from the dead CEO leaning against him, and Rhys looks at him with a curious gaze. The scar—the ECHOeye—

This is… actually Atlas’s CEO.

 

At the sight of Jack, Rhys’s lips curl up into a wide grin. _“Maybe not you.”_ He purrs out, takes long strides to Jack, and splays his hand over his chest. “ _I think I might keep **you,** handsome.”_

Jack doesn’t know how to respond.

_Rhys is dead._

_This doesn’t make any sense._

Rhys is standing right before him, his signature on his grin on his face and his hands on his chest, and Jack feels like this is only the start of things going far differently than planned.


	2. Midnight

“What the _hell_ is wrong with you?!” Fiona yells in response to Jack’s very obvious freakout, and—and listen, he’s trying to be as calm as possible, but right now—oh god. That’s his boss. Dead—dead boss. His _dead_ boss.

Rhys – holy shit, he’s actually moving and looking around – looks over his shoulder and at Fiona, his expression completely neutral and his entire body a see-through, gentle, _gentle_ pink. Jack can only stare at him, through him, because oh god.

None of this is making any sense in Jack’s head. He backs away a bit and stares at Rhys, then at Fiona, then at everyone else in the room – Nisha, Sasha, Loader Bot – and swallows. He feels something sparking near him and when Jack looks down, Rhys has placed his hand on Jack’s chest again. His fingers are splaying out and the man is focusing on him again.

His eyes are wide open and both of them are pink – like the rest of him – and Jack is staring at him with the stupidest expression ever he’s sure. “ _Anyway,_ before she interrupted us so rudely—who are you?” Rhys asks, voice like velvet and very agitated, and Jack looks at Fiona again, at the fact that she can’t—she can’t _see_ Pandora’s should-have-been-liberator.

“Uh.” Is his reply, and Rhys is raising a lone, fine eyebrow at the response. His eyes roam over Jack, finally taking notice to the flamingo-pink sweater with the white **_ATLAS_** on the front. Something very similar to – to mirth, Jack thinks, spreads on the dead CEO’s face and he says, “wow, I didn’t know anyone actually bought those” with the softest voice possible.

He looks up at Jack then, a big grin on his face. “So you work for me—perfect! This’ll make this much easier, sweetheart.” Rhys pushes himself away from Jack, his back straight and chin held high as he takes small and calculating steps around the Hyperion base. “No security… turrets… wow, Hyperion must have _really_ lost its edge near the end, huh?”

There’s something gleefully cruel in Rhys’s voice as he walks around, manoeuvres himself around the people there, before he’s going up the stairs two steps at a time with a stride too confident to be real or fake.

It’s _surreal,_ Jack wants to say, to see his boss be so proud and fluid in person. More questions are being directed at him, mostly from Fiona and Sasha and Nisha is staring at him critically, and Jack ignores them all to follow Rhys; mostly out of obligation. His steps are uncertain, and Rhys is looking at him from the platform when Jack isn’t where he is.

“Get over here.” Rhys says at first, and Jack stares at him uncomprehendingly before the man curls his hands into fists and glares. “Get. **Over. _HERE.”_** He screams, his voice distorting and shrieking in his ears, and Jack practically lunges to where Rhys is.

He’s given a condescending pat on the head and Rhys is turning around, listing off things that they need to do to secure this base and Jack isn’t listening. Which—which really, a bad idea this is Rhys- _Rhys._ But it’s kind of hard for him to focus on right now, and the wheels in his head are moving ever so slowly.

When Rhys is about to turn around and berate him on, probably, not listening to him properly, Jack talks without thinking. “You’re dead.” He blurts out, and Rhys is looking at him like he personally took it upon himself to take a piss on his skag, Sheila.

“Pardon me?” Rhys says, voice very, _very_ calm, “is that a _threat?”_ he takes a good few steps towards Jack, long strides, and it takes him some time to realise what the CEO said. His eyes widen and he takes one step back.

“Nonono- that’s not what I—“ but the damage is done already, and Jack lets out a loud **_“FUCK”_** as Rhys’s arm lashes out, clawed fingers extending to grab and tear at his throat, and his hand passes _right through_ and oh god. That is definitely a very _off_ sensation.

There’s silence after that and Jack takes a deep breath, chooses to use that to compose himself, and runs his hand through his _fantastic_ hair. “Right- so, pumpkin,” Jack says slowly, trying to get over his second embarrassing moment of the day [fuck Pandora] to try and talk proper, “you’re, um… dead.”

Rhys is just staring at his hand. “It passed right through you.” His voice is monotone as he says that. He clenches his cybernetic arm into a tight fist, and then relaxes it. He repeats the motion over and over, eyes fixed on it, and he looks up at Jack with _murder_ in those eyes.

Oh shit.

“What did you _do?”_ He hisses, his slight form trembling and he’s taking shaky steps towards Jack. “Whoawhoawhoaheyheyhey,” Jack says in response and he’s backing away, more out of instinct than anything, and Rhys is trembling.

“I didn’t **_do_** anything—“ he bites his tongue when Rhys regards him with burning cold eyes, “it was the—the god damn _bandits_ of this pisshole.” Jack spits out, and that makes the dead CEO calm down near immediately. “They – you, you nearly saved this planet, then those pieces of _scum,_ ” he has to spit at that, faced away from Rhys of course, “decided to kill you.”

He exhales. “Atlas has gone to shit without ya, and I’ve been tryin’ to fix that. Make my way up top, get the promotion I rightly deserve, and make Atlas great again and… save Pandora. Like you.” He lowers his hands that he doesn’t remember raising, and Rhys is looking at him with a blank expression.

That—that is hopefully good. He has never dealt with the CEO in person—and never really wanted to, unless it was in bed. _God_ he has heard stories about the man in bed; fantastic stories, stories that stroke all of Jack’s fantasies. Damn.

Wait, no- not the—not the time to be thinking about that. _Down, boy._ Jack thinks with a glare at his crotch that he manages to disguise as a glare to the ground before he looks up at the dead CEO again. “Shit without me, huh?” there’s an odd smile on Rhys’s face; amused and two parts flattered, Jack thinks, and he relaxes. “Of course it’d go shit without me. Half those assholes can’t even add two plus two without a freaking calculator.”

Then, he’s marching up to Jack, arms crossing in front of him and he’s backing away _again._ “Wait—sweetie—“ Jack begins, eyes widening when he sees Rhys uncross his arms just to raise his cybernetic arm again, “don’t, _don’t,_ c’mon it doesn’t wo-“

He bumps his head against something really hard in his haste to back away, and Rhys is laughing and flickering out of view and Jack takes a fall.

Because of course he does.

* * *

He really, really hates Vasquez. He really hates the Atlas Duo. He **_really_ ** hates rakk hives and their—their weird vagina mouths.

What the hell is wrong with this planet?!

And now Atlas is trying to wipe them out by using freaking—freaking moonshots which. _Beautiful._ He’s very grateful that he has lived long enough to have an entire space station try to kill him with moonshots.

“You! Angry girlie who’s always trying to shoot us!” Nisha yells as she points at Sasha, and she gets a sneer in response. “Let Jack drive! He has an ECHOeye, he can detect when the moonshots are going to land!” After a bit of deliberating, Sasha groans and gets up and Jack is immediately taking her seat. Nisha grins, briefly glares at Sasha as she runs past and she grabs at one of the sister’s guns and takes to it like a pro.

He almost thinks that she comes from another universe, a universe where she’s not an accountant surrounded by nerds or whatever. He thinks it suits her—being a gun-toting heroine, that is.

But right now, that isn’t important. What is important is that Jack has been given the wheel, and now he has to drive them around moonshots (freaking _moonshots;_ all they did was take _ten million dollars_ Atlas makes like _ten billion a day what the hell_ ) because he’s the only one **_“blessed”_** with an ECHOeye here, and it’s—

It’s hell, and it’s not fun.

Of course, with rakks, come rakk hives and Jack – as previously mentioned – really hates rakk hives. It’s a stroke of blind genius that hits him that they should use a moonshot to kill the rakk hive [because they’re not vault hunters, never were, and doubts they ever will be] and he’s proud and confident of it—

Until he realises that his grip on the steering wheel is weakening and he goes flying. He grabs at Nisha when she loses her grip, and he grabs her and the caravan as tight as he can. “C’mon, Nish,” Jack says softly, because he doesn’t want to lose her out in the desert, but then his fingers are sliding and his grip fails as well.

The caravan is moving far too quickly, and Fiona manages to grab at his boot—

—and it slides right off of him, and there’s pure absolute shock on her face as Jack and Nisha are flung out of the caravan at an alarming speed and into an alarming height.

Everything slows down for a moment then, and Jack wonders if this is what people mean when they say ‘your life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die of a heart attack’. He’s sure that the ‘of a heart attack’ isn’t part of the saying, but Jack is going to die of a heart attack.

Their landing is a graceless, flailing, rolling mess and Jack finds himself being embraced by his hated enemy— _Sand._

God _damn_ this place and god _damn Sand; he hates Sand so much._ He pushes himself up, eyes closed as he drags his hand down his face, and Nisha is sitting on a rock nearby. “We should’ve killed Pandora years ago.” She says, and Jack can’t help but groan weakly in agreement. “Not gonna lie- it’s great here. Murderin’, fightin’, violence, all brutal, all very _visceral,_ ” she continues, and Jack nods.

Yeah, yeah. All those fit Nisha very well. “But this place _ain’t_ obeying me, and I really, really don’t like that.” He raises an eyebrow at her, and she shrugs. “It’s the truth.”

“It’s a planet, babe.” Jack says. “The only time it tried to obey anyone was Rhys—“

“And it damn well killed him.” Nisha finishes and she sighs, running her hand through her long hair. “Damn.” She says, and “damn,” Jack says as well, in quiet agreement. “We should probably get going; stay here too long and someone might try and kill u-“

Jack’s right hand starts to make soft beeping noises and they both look at each other with wide and hopeful eyes.

It’s Wilhelm. Oh god bless that requisition asshole. “Willyboo!” Jack says with excitement clear in his voice at the sight of Wilhelm on the other end of the call, and the man gives him the most deadpan stare ever.

Or maybe that’s his default face. Jack forgets what is and isn’t Wilhelm’s default face. “Please tell me you got good news?” Jack says, and in the background he hears Nisha announce that she’s gonna go piss in the sand. He rolls his eyes at that, and Nisha is snickering as though she saw it.

Right- back to Wilhelm.

“No, I don’t.” Is the near-immediate response, and for a moment, Wilhelm is looking to the side with a glare before he’s quickly looking back at Jack. Wilhelm is mouthing something, and he… doesn’t really get what the man is trying to say, but it doesn’t matter because Wilhelm is talking again almost immediately. “Called to check up on you two.”

“Ask for supplies!” Nisha yells out, and Wilhelm is bringing a hand up to his face. “Don’t talk to me while you’re peeing!” Jack yells back, and Wilhelm’s other hand comes up to his face as well. Nisha is just laughing.

“I can’t send you any supplies.” Wilhelm hisses out, his voice grave and his face pinched in a rare show of slight emotion. “I’m being monitored. I’ll try and send you… something. But no big supplies; you’re on your own.” Then, another show of VERY slight emotion, and Wilhelm says, “gotta go. Bye.”

The call ends like that, and Jack thinks he’s going to punch a skag in the tongue. When he turns around, Nisha is looking refreshed and he’s about to say something—

“Boo!” someone says and Jack yells in surprise as pink flashes before his eyes, a beautiful face appearing in his vision and he flails his arms. He nearly slips on the Sand, and Nisha is staring at him like he’s crazy. “Don’t! _Do that!”_ Jack hisses out to Rhys once he’s managed to regain his balance, and the CEO is grinning lazily at him.

He hears Nisha clear her throat then. “Jack. I didn’t do anything.” She places her hands on her hips and tilts her head to the side. “You goin’ crazy? This place got to your already frying brain, didn’t it?” He looks at Rhys, who is standing next to Nisha and narrowing his eyes.

“She’s beautiful.” Rhys says suddenly, a smile on his face. “Almost as beautiful as Yvette.” There’s fondness in his voice, and Jack can’t help but try and commit the way the CEO sounds then to his memory. “… And she can’t see me, right?”

He snaps his fingers in front of Nisha and the woman doesn’t react, and something like glee spreads all over Rhys.

“It’s Rhys.” Jack blurts out. “Remember when in the thing—“

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

“He’s dead.”

“Yep.” He can’t help but pop the P then, and Rhys is just standing there with his hands on his hips and his eyebrows raised. “But he’s right next to you, kinda lookin’ – uh…”

“Amused, sweetpea.” Rhys supplies, and Jack repeats after him. “Amused. He looks amused. He’s pink. Really pink.”

Nisha looks at him evenly, and he stares back right into her eyes. They’re just staring at each other, and Rhys is looking between them trying to figure out what they’re doing. She tilts her head back, he bows his head, she sinks her fingers save thumb into the waistband of her skirt, Jack raises his hands up with one index up and one pinky up, and Nisha sighs.

“You’re not going crazy, are you?”

“Hopefully, no.”

“Okay, okay. We’ll do something simple.” She puts her hand behind her. “How many numbers am I holding?” Without Jack even having to ask, Rhys is peeking over behind Nisha.

He sighs. “She’s giving me the middle finger.”

“You’re giving the middle finger, babe. The hell?”

Nisha blinks. Jack blinks. Rhys is looking between them again. With a maniacal cackle, Nisha’s composure completely relaxes. “I believe you.” She says, anguished amusement clear in her voice as she says that, and Jack is grinning sheepishly.

Yeah. This is weird.

* * *

They’re wondering the desert for a while, and Rhys is with them the entire time that they’re wandering. Walking sucks, Jack has decided, and he thinks he needs to get cybernetic le- actually, why doesn’t he just turn himself into a god damn robot or whatever the right term for it is?

He keeps forgetting, because he has, you know, actual work to worry about. But anyway—he hates having to walk, especially in the Sand where the sun is blazing and unforgiving. At some point, however, they see a twinkle in the sky and Nisha’s eyes are wide. “Wilhelm made it through?” She says, and Jack is praying that that’s the ca—

“It’s coming right for us.” Jack says, then, “oh _crap_ it’s _coming for us._ ” And he has to duck outta the way, away from the Atlas cargo, and Rhys is looking like an exasperated princess as he sighs. A fistful of Sand enters his mouth and Jack is standing up and coughing it all up and it gets worse when, it turns out, the car in the cargo blows more Sand his and Nisha’s way.

They’re both hacking up their lungs, trying to get the sand out and, ugh, god, he _hates_ Pandora. The window rolls down, and—

“Vachezo!” Jack yells immediately, and the man is looking at him with a very offended expression. Vach—no, no, _Vasquez_ sighs and rubs his face. He raises an eyebrow and looks the car over – it’s _red,_ shade of red so bright that it’s making Rhys sneer. “Huh, wow, what an eyesearing red,” Jack comments, “would’a liked better in black.”

“Absolutely,” Nisha agrees, her arms crossing in front of her, “that red and gold just ain’t doing it for me Jack. Didn’t we get a nice car—black, right? God, what a good car. Too bad it got destroyed by bandits, huh?”

Vasquez is fuming. _“Laugh it up.”_

Of course, they are, but not for long. Things… escalate. As it turns out, asshole here tried to make a deal with not only Jack, but _Nisha_ too, and apparently they both refused him.

He has to keep from grinning, and Nisha seems to be suffering from the same dilemma as him. “You’re both sickening.” Rhys says as he witnesses them struggling to keep their grins to themselves, and he’s looking ten levels of unamused and irritated.

Jack huffs in fond irritation. ‘ _Fussy princess,’_ he thinks with what he doubts can count as a sour expression before he looks back to the seething slimeball. “He really, really is slimy, isn’t he? God, I can just— _see_ the oil oozing out of his disgusting pores. I hate him.” Rhys comments when Vasquez starts talking again, and Jack is mostly tuning him out until he mentions Jack.

“Now, you see, the guys up top want this asshole. Dead or alive, doesn’t matter, just want Jack back up top because he got something _important_ in his head.” Then, he’s reaching into the car to throw shovels at them and he reaches in to grab at a gun.

At the sight of the gun, Rhys squints. “That is an _awful_ design,” he comments, agitation clear on his voice, “I can _tell_ just from looking at it that it’s gonna explode in someone’s **face.** Are these the quality of guns Atlas is making? I need to get back.” He steps back, unnecessarily, to avoid the shovel flying Jack’s way.

He catches it midair, and Jack stares at the shovel, back up to Vasquez who is looking like a smug, ugly preening scythid, and he looks back at the shovel again. Taking a deep breath, Jack raises the shovel and throws it, full force, at Vasquez.

Much to his displeasure, the man dodges out of the way [with a satisfyingly panicked like on his face] and the shovel completely _breaks_ one of the car windows. “… I mean, I may not have hit you but at least I got your car.” Jack says with a shrug, and Nisha’s cackling.

“You… **_asshole!”_** Vasquez cries out, his voice cracking partway through, and Jack grins smugly

Vasquez is pointing the gun at him then, however, and all his smugness is immediately lost as Jack’s eyes widen. Rhys’s eyes widen as well, and he’s looking at Jack with a face that says _DO SOMETHING_ and he wants to scream back **_DO WHAT_** because last he checked, _he doesn’t have his vault hunting license._

Energy gathers at the gun—

And then fizzles away.

“… That’s it?” Jack and Rhys say in unison, and Nisha is facepalming. Slimeball’s busy trying to get the gun to work proper, and the CEO takes that as his cue to stand in front of Jack. “He’s going to kill you, and as much as that is technically beneficial for _me,_ ” Rhys points at himself with his thumb, “I rather not _temporarily die_ for that to happen. I also _did_ say I was going to keep you, so no. Nooot happening, honey.”

He snaps his fingers several times. “Now, listen, I dug around a bit in your cybernetics—the eye. I dug around in the eye. Anyway, I dug around in the eye, and I enhanced your ECHOeye to better hack that—that _thing._ ” Rhys is pointing behind him without even looking, a glare on his face. “So _hurry up and do something about this.”_

 _‘No need to tell me twice,’_ Jack wants to say, but he bites his tongue and keeps quiet. Instead, he focuses on the gun in Vasquez’s hand.

What is it that Rhys said? That it looks like it’s going to explode at any moment?

 

_Perfect._

The gun _explodes_ in Vasquez’s hands, though it doesn’t hurt him too badly, and he and Nisha have to duck away when the gun starts to act up. Rhys is flickering in and out of view, his form shaking as he tries to hold his laughter in; his teeth dig into his lower lip, and when the gun actually _goes off,_ the man loses it.

When Jack stumbles back, standing side by side to Rhys, the CEO starts to laugh. He wraps his arms around his stomach and laughs loud and happy, body shaking and body tilting back. He throws his head back, and Jack is enjoying the little gleeful side of the CEO—

Until he notices that his right arm has wrapped itself around his midriff and his body is shaking ever so slightly. “Jack, the hell are you doing?” Nisha barks out, and Rhys is looking over to him with wide eyes.

“I’m not _doing this,_ ” Jack hisses out, his right arm moving with Rhys’s own right as the man waves his arm around. “Huh,” he hears Rhys say, “ _interesting._ ”

So, what does Jack do with the reveal that Rhys is in control of his arm?

He punches himself in the face, hard, and Rhys gives him the most affronted look one man can manage. “Don’t damage your looks!” Rhys says before he flickers out of existence, and Jack is sporting a growing bruise on his cheek.

Damn it.

“ _Jaaaaaack!”_ Vasquez yells, the man getting up and looking _awful,_ and Jack and Nisha exchange glances when the slimeball turns around and begins to run back to his car.

It is at that wonderful moment that Loader Bot appears, a beautiful ray of sunshine that is welcome in this Sandy Pisshole, and whisks them away to safety.

Nisha makes them go to Hollow Point instead of Old Haven, because apparently if ‘she has to deal with more shit like that without bandit scum taking the fall for her then she’s going to eat her own legs’. Her words, not Jack’s.

He doesn’t blame her, really.

* * *

“These—these Atlas jerkbags can’t be yo’ friends guuurl, ya gotta be kiddin’ me!” This—this Scooter asshole yells, pointing over at Nisha and Jack and they both glare at him. Despite his little angry bravado, the man wilts from the combined glare, and he coughs into his oily, dirty fist. “R—right, I m-mean, look at ‘em! Angry basterds dem lots!”

Fiona looks over to them, her eyes lingering on Nisha more than it does Jack, and Sasha elbows her sister’s side. “Well, they are our friends, Scooter. Of course, they do look really mean—“

Nisha snorts and Jack rolls his eyes.

“—but that doesn’t mean they don’t belong here—because, really, I mean, to be fair, most Pandorans look pretty…”

“Angry.” Sasha continues smoothly, her hands on her hips and her posture far more confident than Fiona’s. “We know that these guys are quite intimidating, and we know Atlas has ruined Pandora, but you gotta believe us when we tell you, we trust them.”

The mechanic looks down, hands on his hips; he looks around after a small while, nervously looks back at the Atlas two, before he sighs and looks back at the sisters. “Well, if y’all say so.”

Fiona and Sasha smile at him; Fiona looking awfully strained while Sasha looks charming, and they’re both ushered into the newly repaired caravan.

“But ya girls know ya can trust ol’ Scoots, right? If they ever do anyt’in’ to ya, tell me an’ I’ll deal with ‘em.” They hear Scooter say and Nisha peeks out the door and sighs loudly.

“Like we would.” She says and moves away, and Jack crosses his arms and closes his eyes, head tilting back and his back leaning against the arm of the little sofa in the van.

_‘A vault hunt… with these two.’_

_‘Great.’_

* * *

“I really don’t understand how you get into trouble so easily.” Rhys says, appearing the moment Vasquez and the princess capture them. He takes in the way Rhys just casually strolls up to him, arms crossing and his head tilting to the side. “Who’s _he?_ He looks like a twitchy asshole.” The CEO says as he looks at August, eyes narrowing and shoulders straightening up.

Jack looks at him from the corner of his eyes, trying not to bring attention to himself, and he looks back to Vasquez as the man starts go off about the Gortys core. He watches August reach out for one of the Gortys core parts, specifically Jack’s, and the man yells and throws his piece up into the air.

He raises his arm up, catches it easily, and Nisha gives him double-thumbs up and a lazy grin. He gives her a thumbs up with his free hand, and Rhys is letting out a suffering sigh.

“You coulda warned me, asshole!” August cries out, and he’s not really sure who he’s talking to—probably all of them. Vasquez shrugs, says, “well, now you know,” and looks back to Jack and raises his gun up.

“Take care of Nisha and the sister. We’re taking them along with us.” Rhys is walking up to Jack, trying his best to lean against him without falling through him, and he looks so very irritated as he stares at Vasquez. “You, Johnniebob, let’s go.” Jack growls at him and Vasquez grins, and Rhys’s expression is unchanging.

* * *

Vasquez talks. A lot. “Y’know, I always knew you had some  _balls,_ man. Some giant  _balls_ on you; because trying to steal the deal from me? That’s a new level.”

“I feel like I recognise Assquez from somewhere.” Rhys says in the middle of Vasquez’s talking, distracting the onslaught of verbal diarrhea with his flowery voice, and Jack sighs loudly. “He’s so… familiar.”

“—I’m sure that, if Rhys was still alive, he’d be awfully _proud_ of ya. Bet that’s why you did it, huh?”

“Oh for— so familiar… It’s starting to drive me crazy. I know—I know him. I know you know him, but why do I know him?”

“Not like I blame you. If I were in your position I… I would’ve done the same.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” Jack and Rhys say at the same time as they walk, and he can feel the back of his head burning from the glare Vasquez is giving him. Whoops. “You’re too much of a _coward_ to do shit, Assquez.” Jack spits out, and Vasquez is growling – not so terrifyingly – at him.

He hears a sharp inhalation and an open-mouthed exhalation, and Jack shrugs. “In our lives—“ Vasquez begins again, the gun constantly brushing Jack’s back to remind him not to do anything, “—we all have inspirations; someone out there is always _better_ than the rest, always so _perfect_ and out of reach-“

“If he says me I’m going to vomit ones and zeroes.”

“-and mine was Rhys—“

“I hate this guy.” There is nothing but pure anguish in Rhys’s voice, and Jack almost feels sorry for hi—no, no. He definitely feels _really_ sorry for him. Vasquez is _the worst._ “Please make him shut up. Soon.”

Of course, he can’t do anything—gun and threat of death and all—so he just stays quiet. “I’ve known… known Rhys for a good time—not as long as his little left and right hands, but I’ve known him since I was in the mailroom-“

“Mailroom…” Rhys repeats and he walks around Jack when they come to a stop, leans in close, and narrows his eyes, “is he…”

“He used to break his cheap mug on my head-“

“Oh my god! Haha, oh god!” Rhys is yelling then, pure glee on his face as he backs away and throws his hands up. “Wallethead! I remember now! This—this creep was going through _hair transplants_ so there were flaps in his head—“ he taps at Vasquez’s head, where the flaps are – were? – supposed to be, “—and every time Yvette and I walked by him, she’d shove her loose change into his head!”

He looks at Jack with a big smile, and he’s not going to lie.

Jack’s actually a bit awed right now. _Wallethead?_

“Call—call him Wallethead, honey please, it’ll make my day!”

“—once, I was drinking from my own mug, and he broke both mugs on my head—“

Rhys is looking at him with wide eyes, his smile wide and grin sparkling and, even without that as the best damn encouragement _ever_ , Jack is gonna do it. “So, Wallethead,” Jack says, and Vasquez stutters out a “wallethead?” in response, “I don’t give a shit about what you have to say. Get this shit done with, and shut the flaps on your head and mouth so I don’t have to deal with it.”

There’s roaring laughter from Rhys; he wraps his arms around himself, body shaking and his laughter echoing in the hallway, and Vasquez is just stuttering and staring at him with wide eyes.

God, he’s so happy to be built and to have cybernetic arms. He waves his prosthetic hand at Vasquez, a shark’s grin on his face, and the flaphead is leading him away in absolute silence then.

* * *

It’s… not what he expected.

Despite this being Hyperion property, it reminds him awfully of the hallways on the floors nearer to Rhys’s office. Hexagons span over the entirety of the place, and Jack looks around the dulled red lines in the dome as the platform starts to slowly move him towards the very middle.

He catches sight of Fiona from the other side, edging closer alongside him, and the shades of red fluctuate and change constantly, reminding him of pumping veins in a way. Maybe it’s more like the night sky, where the stars twinkle and shine, constantly glowing and fading away?

It’s wide and large, and the dull colour slowly fades away to a glowing crimson. The hexagons keep changing shapes; circles and triangles and squares before it returns back to hexagons, and Jack doesn’t know what to say.

“Hey.” Fiona says softly, breaking him out of his thoughts, and Jack looks at her with a surprisingly calm expression. “Yo,” he responds before he’s looking around, staring up at the area they’ve found themselves in, and Fiona follows his gaze for a bit.

There’s a tremendous hum in the area, gentle and comforting in a way that Jack can’t entirely understand, and a smile spreads on his lips as he takes the place in.

This place is Hyperion, yet he can recognise the Atlas designs and mark and Jack feels a warmth bloom in his chest. He can feel Fiona staring at him, but Jack decides not to acknowledge her until he’s done looking around the Galatarium, and she at least stays quiet enough for that.

They both eventually stare at the barrier that separates them from Nisha and Sasha; Vasquez and August run into view eventually, and the former is slamming his gun on the glass repeatedly to bring up their attention.

“We got it, we got it!” Jack barks out, though he doesn’t know if they can hear him, and he looks back at Fiona. The devices on their pedestal are waiting, unmoving, and she gives him a tiny smile. He smirks in response, but it quickly fades away. He moves behind his device, and Fiona does the same to hers, and they’re both grunting as they begin to push.

It’s unbearably heavy, and Rhys is standing by and watching them both, though his gaze constantly flickers away to stare at the changing space around them.

The devices slam together, fitting each other perfectly, and a soft humming radiates. Like dominoes being flipped over, the red switches over to a light shade of pink; it reminds him of rose quartz briefly, before the colour in between the pink darkens into a shade of midnight.

Red lines glow and fade away to the pink, slowly and gradually, and his attention is brought away from the change of colours and towards the devices. Said devices separate, revealing a metallic ball with red and black lines, and Fiona and he begin to pace around the little sphere.

… It’s a ball.

This—this majestically large place that changes so drastically is… housing… a ball.

“What is this?” Fiona says, her voice filled with disbelief, and Jack just stares at her then back at the ball. He wants to punch someone so badly right now.

Trying not to reveal his absolute _agitation,_ Jack sighs. “A metal _ball._ ” He spits out and Fiona and Rhys both look at him with one eyebrow raised. “We came here—for a metal ball.”

“What does it even _do?”_ Fiona asks, her eyes squinting, and Rhys really looks like he has something to say but he bites his lower lip and keeps quiet.

Jack shakes his head and he stops, rests his hands on his hips, and shrugs. “I’uhno. Vault key?” he answers, not really caring about the question.

“How is that a vault key? It doesn’t look like any I’ve seen.”

“Oh, so you’re tellin’ me you’re a hunter now? Seen millions of keys in your life?”

She recoils at his tone, her lips curling downwards into an angry snarl, and Jack shrugs. “Ugh, you’ve a point. Only keys I’ve seen so far has been one fake that _we_ made. Well, whatever. Just grab it and let’s go.”

“Shut up.” Jack grumbles out. He reaches out to grab the ball, accidentally smacks it a little too hard, and it falls from its floating position and immediately begins to roll away. “Good going. I’m _so proud._ ” Rhys murmurs when Jack does that, and he’s sliding on his stomach to grab the thing before it falls of into nothingness.

Though that… doesn’t matter. Drones start to fly up and Rhys’s eyes are widening in absolute horrified recognition, and there are alarms going off, the soothing humming of the area coming to an abrupt stop. Loud and blaring, it grates his ears as Jack stands up with the ball in his hands looking like a deer in the headlights.

The drones are _everywhere—_ they’re even where Nisha— _Nisha!_ He nearly snaps his neck with how quickly he turns his head to stare at the barrier to where she stands, and Jack’s mouth falls open. “Nonononono! Nisha!”

“Sasha!” Fiona yells out next to him, and he catches sight of August pulling his gun on Sasha. They’re arguing then, the alarms are loud, and the drones are all aiming at him. “You _bastard!”_ Fiona screams out, and she’s yanking the ball away from Jack and—

“ ** _Is she crazy?!”_** Rhys yells out when she brings out a _grenade_ and he’s looking at Jack with wide, panicked eyes. With all the confidence gone, his scar seems so very prominent now even without colour, and Jack is looking between him and Nisha. “You can’t let her do this! She’ll kill us! She doesn’t—I don’t think she even has a plan!”

His slender form is so close, so very close to Jack, and he’s doing his best to put his hands on Jack’s arm. “Listen I have—let me in, Jack, if you let me in,” he’s calming down, voice even if only a little bit shaky, “I can hack these drones. I can _get into the system,_ just let me **in!** You know I can do this, don’t you? Trust me!”

He looks at him—there’s certainty written all over Rhys’s face, a disarming smile on his lips and his eyes are half-lidded again. He looks tired, welcoming, almost as though this is nothing to worry about, and Jack glances over to Fiona’s angered expression.

There’s no arguing which one is the best choice. He breathes in deep through his nose and exhales through his mouth, and looks at Rhys through his eyelashes.

“Get in.” he says, a small adoring smile spreading across his lips, “I trust you.”

There’s a wide, toothy grin on Rhys’s face—calling it a shark’s grin would be an understatement. His eyes are wide, one glowing a faint blue and the other a vivid yellow, and he’s chuckling. A shudder goes through Jack and he doesn’t know if Rhys notices, hopes he doesn’t, when he brings his hand up to Jack’s head.

He caresses the side of Jack’s face, fingers moving down to the port under his ear, and Rhys leans in close. “ _You did a good thing.”_ Rhys coos before he’s flicking the port and Jack jolts from the shock that runs through him.

His body is out of his control now, and now _both_ his arms are moving with Rhys’s graceful hand movements. “Wh- what are you—how are you doing that?” Fiona stutters out as the colours of all the drones change from blue to yellow, turn away from Jack and her and instead turn to face the barrier.

“Influence.” Is the only thing Jack says as he reaches out with Rhys’s movements, and he’s moving with the laughter as well as the CEO’s voice echoes throughout the Hyperion base.

 _“Hail to the Emperor!”_ Rhys yells out as the drones fly away, obedient puppets moving with the strings attached to their fingers, and his laughter is excited, powerful.

_“Because he’s **back,** sweethearts! **He’s back!”**_


	3. Evening

“You’re in control now,” Rhys says as the drones fly away, floating before the barrier between the assholes and his Nisha, and Jack takes in a deep breath. “So you might wanna do something, honey, before Fiona’s brain completely fries.” He looks over to the flabbergasted and stunned Fiona, her jaw dropping open and eyes wide, and Jack supposes he has… a very good point there.

He draws his hand back and then shoves it forward, and there’s a cacophony of bullets against the barrier. He uses his other hand to raise and move their platform forward, and Rhys is grinning with pride as they’re moving forward and shooting the damn thing down. The first thing Jack does after the barrier is broken is something he has wanted to do for a _loooong_ time.

With a shark’s grin, he focuses on Vasquez’s position – on where he’s lying on the ground next to the switch that’s keeping their loader bot frozen in place – and he thrusts his hand forward. A pitiful shriek escapes Vasquez’s lips as his arm is _torn off_ and goes— ** _goes flying_** from the drones’ bullets, blood splatters messily and very quickly pools around the scumbag, and Jack has never felt so _alive_ before.

It’s worth seeing the gleeful little look on Nisha’s face too when she catches sight of the way Vasquez’s arm just goes _freaking flying_ —because holy shit, _ho-hoooly shit_ , Jack has never seen anything like that before and he really wants to laugh.

Everything about this is _perfect_ and _wonderful,_ and Rhys is standing next to him; pride radiates from every pore of Jack’s body, and he wants to just—

He wants to laugh with Rhys. This is awesome!

Then, before he even knows it, Jack’s losing control of the drones and Rhys is stepping forward once the platform is level with the floor. “I think it’s my turn now, darling.” Is the only thing he hears from Rhys’s end before the drones are spreading out and about—

People are _dying_ left and right and yet to Jack’s luck none of his allies [well, friend and acquaintances really; he doesn’t _care_ if Sasha and Fiona get hurt] are getting injured in the process of Rhys just _deciding to slaughter everyone around him._

August’s goons are screaming, bullets and electricity filling the air with ear-piercing sounds, and Rhys is standing behind the statue of Hyperion with a wide grin on his face. He’s swaying, as though he’s listening to music, and he’s snapping his fingers to a beat only he can hear.

“I missed this!” Rhys yells out, mirth and joy clear in his voice, and Jack watches as Fiona runs off to join in on the action with Sasha and, of course, Nisha following after her. He jumps off of the platform, stumbles over to the statue’s small podium, and Rhys jumps down next to him. “I’ve gotten you a little robot buddy—he’s… a bit small, but-“

“Dumpy.” Jack says immediately at the sight of the dumpy, small little thing that floats in front of him. “I’m calling him _Dumpy._ ”

There’s what feels like a long period of silence from Rhys. “I—well.” He clears his throat – or well, as much as an AI can clear their throat – and runs his hands through his hair. “I was—thinking—no, no. You know what? Dumpy fits him perfectly.”

Rhys strides away from him, then, and Jack is sure his heels would be clacking with power if he was… real. He spreads his arms and Jack stares at the back of his head as the drones continue their shooting, attacking indiscriminately now, and Jack brings up his ECHOscreen to try and navigate Dumpy – his new fella, buddy, friend, robuddy – around to try and _at least_ assist _someone._

Which he does, of course, because Jack’s a god damn _hero._

… Though, Dumpy gets shot by Sasha – _asshole_ – and Jack is ever so gently cradling the tiny robot against him and digistructing him into his inventory to fix later.

Sasha is still an asshole, even when she’s running in with Nisha and Fiona to discuss the fact that they need to get out of the Hyperion base because the drones are… really starting to get dangerously out of hand.

He looks at Rhys, at the man who is standing with his back to Jack and his hands on his hips, and he turns around to look at the exit.

“We really need to get outta here—I mean, even _if_ the drones are helping us, and that’s a big **if,** whatever it is that you did kinda messed ‘em up.” Sasha says, and Jack flinches. Rhys glances at them from over his shoulder and barely regards them before he looks forward again and Jack can’t hold back his sigh as he looks down at the ground.

“You,” Jack swallows and licks his lips, “you – much to my _utter anger_ – have a god damn point.” He glares up at Sasha, and she grins smugly in return. “So, how do you suggest we get outta this mess?”

“We can’t shoot our way out,” Nisha says, “there’s too many of the drones, and trying to kill one’ll just bring in way more. Way out’s also blocked by way too many people—where the heck do these bandits keep coming from? They’re breedin’ like… ugh, _skags._ ”

Sasha rolls her eyes. “Loader bot. You have a loader bot. Use him for something, or whatever.” She looks at Jack with a glare. “ _You_ have the arms for it, Mr. Roboto, _do something._ ”

“Okay, first of all,” Jack _did not whine,_ “I have the _arm_ for it- the other one is an old sackashit. Second, _stop calling me Mr. Roboto!”_

* * *

After the whole escaping from the base thing, everything goes to shit because someone –  _a princess named August for fuck sake –_ has a mother built like a brick wall with a face made for breaking people and sunglasses that, according to Rhys,  _“are far too big for her face and do not complement anything she wears at all.”_

Yeah, yeah sure, Jack is just gonna keep that tidbit about fashion in mind. Yeah. Totally.

[The truth of the matter is, he’s totally gonna keep that in mind and he wants to pretend he won’t but… yeah, he’s that sad.]

But as it is—they’re about to die because August tried to trick his mum, his mum did not approve of that (good going August, you shit-caked asshole), and now they’re all going to die [except for August] because August is an idiot.

And Fiona is an idiot. Sasha too. Has Jack ever mentioned how much he hates Pandorans? Regret floods him as he stands there, with Rhys having flickered away and thankfully not there to watch his pitiful demise—

That is, until someone throws a shield at Vallory and scares the living _hell_ outta her. A stunningly short woman slams down on the ground before them, righting herself up before she’s chasing Vallory off, and Jack is thinking-

Finally, things are turning out for the b-

“Are you all… freaking… **_STUPID?!”_** the woman ends up screaming as she turns to face them, face twisted into rage, and Nisha and Jack look at each with a blank look. Loader bot, Sasha, and Fiona all let out an “oh,” from her appearance and Jack has to hold back the urge to **_groan._**

Which, apparently, he fails to do because Sasha is punching him – hard – in the side. “Shut _up._ We thought she was going to kill us.” She hisses, and the anger dissipates when the woman looks her way, and—

Wait. Shit, that’s Athena the gladiator—how did he not recognise her at first? He looks at her with wide-eyed horror and a small of bit of awe and Athena’s not even acknowledging him as Fiona marches up to her and begins arguing with her-

She’s barely above her height, and Jack has to wonder how short Fiona is without her heels. Then again, Athena’s wearing heels too…

They’re both very short, but only one of them can snap his neck with a flick of her fingers and that’s… yep. That’s very—something. Something terrifying.

“I was _sent here to train you!”_ Athena yells, breaking him out of his thoughts, and Nisha’s shoving the Gortys core into his hands. “When did you—“ he starts, but he’s immediately interrupted again. “I can’t _believe_ this mission! I don’t even get the glory of a kill at the end of this all!”

Yeah, Jack has to agree, that’s… pretty damn shit. He should probably focus on Gortys and—“oh.” There’s a button on it. He cocks his eyebrow, very quickly scans it, and very nearly throws the Gortys core away when his eye tells him that it’s an “on” button, essentially.

“I really hate Hyperion,” he murmurs to Nisha, and she smirks up at him in response.

Pandora may be the scum of the universe, but he has Nisha with him at least to keep the shittiness of this damn place at bay.

They end up wasting twenty minutes, and Jack is sitting on the sandy ground [UGH] with the Gortys core on his lap and Nisha staring at the corpse of Vasquez a good few steps away. “I can’t believe he’s dead.” She admits, bringing their current—previous conversation to a halt, and he arches an eyebrow. “Always thought—Assquez is gonna die one day, and we’re gonna be the ones to kill him.”

“Instead, a Pandoran bandit killed him.” Jack says, “damn. I really wanted to snap his neck or something. I wanted to be the one to kill him, y’know? I mean, he’s still satisfyingly dead-“

“ _Very_ satisfyingly dead.”

“—but it’s just not good enough that I didn’t kill him, y’know? Like, he antagonised me the most out of our little club-“

“God, Jack just—I wonder why you were his primary target.”

“—so like, I deserved it the most.” He finishes, and Nisha is rolling her eyes at him. “Don’t give me that, you know I deserve it like—that guy was a _megaaaaadick_ to me.”

“I’m not _denyin’_ it, tiger,” she snorts, “you’re just an idiot.”

Before Jack can even reply, Fiona’s making her way over to them both and crossing her arms. They stare up at her, and then back down to the Gortys core when they realise what she’s focusing on. “You figure out how to activate that thing?”

“It has an on-button.”

“… Why didn’t you press it already? I’ve been waiting _twenty minutes—_ “

“Becaaause you were busy with crazy strong gladiator lady? You know, _arguing? Wasting time?_ Getting angry at that Phoenix-“

Nisha elbows him. “Felix,” she corrects him easily, and Jack shrugs. “Yeah, him. That guy. Getting angry at Felix even though he’s—is he dead?”

“ _No._ ” Fiona spits out, and her fingers are digging into her arms. Jack’s elbowed, hard, by Nisha again and he looks at her blankly while she glares at him. Nisha puts a hand on his leg, right underneath the Gortys core, and Jack’s shoulders slump in response. “Right,” he says and looks back at Fiona, “I’ll turn it on then.”

Nisha’s grinning at him then before it’s gone, her expression unreadable, and Jack cradles the core against his chest as he shifts into a squat before he drops it on the ground. He rolls it over, pushes the button down—

…and the cutest little thing ever emerges as a result of the button press. She’s so cute he wants to puke, but he endures as he stares at the tiny red and black thing. She endears herself to Fiona immediately, and Nisha is staring at it with a mixture of disgust and fondness on her face.

“It… was a robot this entire time.” She says, “I’m not sure if that makes any sense or not. Why would a rob-- … does this make any sense to you, handsome?”

“I think it makes a lot of sense!” Gortys says excitedly, the lines on her mouth forming a smile and – gosh, she has dimples, doesn’t she? Jack is hopelessly in love with this little thing.

Damn him and his love for cute things. He blames Angel for this because she’s the one who makes him play dress-up and tea-time and ‘who can punch a hole in the wall’ [which Jack always wins at but also has to spend a lot of money on] and—

Angel would _love_ Gortys, and that thought makes him like Gortys even more. He can’t help but smile at her, and she gives him a big smile back.

Yep.

Gortys is the best.

* * *

They’re on the road with two new companions—Gortys, their new compass to finding a vault and  _Athena!_ Good old Athena—

Good old Athena whom Rhys recognises and has been staring at her the entire time that she’s been in the caravan. He keeps looking between her and Jack with a tense line as his lips and eyes narrowing and squinting every once in a while. Whatever is going on, Jack has no clue and he has the feeling he’s going to learn it soon enough.

In between who gets to drive and who gets to sleep or whatever, Jack has been spending his time trying to fix Dumpy after Sasha hurt the poor little guy. Athena glares at him every once in a while, her gaze the iciest dagger that Jack has ever been exposed to, and Nisha avoids sitting next to him to avoid the glares that woman sends.

She could _kill_ with eyes like those, and Jack has to hope that that isn’t the actual case because he likes being alive, thank you.

It’d also be a shitty and disappointing way to go, because Rhys will be watching him with the most unamused expression.

So that’s how it goes for a good bit—it’s a long drive from where they need to go, which is a Hyperion area, so Jack gets to experience the Pandoran day and night cycles firsthand. Long days, short nights, and a mostly boring landscape as they drive.

At least he gets to drive. It’s been a long time since he actually got to drive and—well—

Pandora is boring.

At some point, he’s about to fall asleep at the wheel when they have to go a straight path with no turns or anything, and his head ends up tilting downwards-

Rhys pops up from between his legs, a soft “boo” escaping his lips and Jack bites his lip so hard he nearly bleeds in surprise. He stumbles up, nearly rips the steering wheel off, and Fiona is right there when it all happens. “Uh.” She says at the sight of Jack patting his thighs aggressively, and she’s immediately slipping into the driver’s seat when Jack makes no intention of going back. “You uh… yeah. Go to sleep; I’m sure we have some medicine to deal with… whatever’s going on.”

Next to him is Rhys with a shit-eating grin, and Jack hates the fact that the only thing he’s going to take out of this isn’t only the loss of dignity but also the image of the CEO between his legs.

Damn it.

* * *

“We’re almost there!” He hears Gortys declare through his sleepy haze and Jack groans and— _crap,_ he fell asleep while standing again. He rubs at his eyes, trying to wipe the sleep outta them, and he blinks a few times so that everything isn’t so sleepy and blurry now.

Athena’s a small distance away, her arms crossed and her eyes closed, and he can guess that she’s sleeping while standing as well. He exhales, leans back against the caravan’s wall and closes his eyes, about to fall asleep, when he hears someone talk. “Jack, you and I need to… talk. Quickly.” It’s Rhys’s voice and Jack jolts and rubs at his face. “Wh-“ he begins, but Rhys immediately interrupts him. “Did you tell Athena about me?”

What?

He blinks rapidly for a few seconds before he looks at Rhys proper. His brows are furrowed as he stares at Jack and his hands are on his hips, gaze expectant. “Uhhhh.” Jack begins, and Rhys is sighing and he rolls his eyes as Jack shakes his head. “No? No. Don’t uh—nope.”

“Good, good—Athena and I are old friends that… parted on very bad terms.” Rhys says, voice tense, and Jack tilts his head to the side. “What I’m saying is that iiiiif she found out I’m in your head,” Rhys flicks his port then and Jack has to keep from yelping _very loudly,_ “she’s going to decapitate you faster than you can say ‘holy shit I’m Handsome’.”

“Oh.” Is the only response Jack can give, and he’s about to say more after a few seconds of thinking if not for a slight interruption—“ _Who are you talking to?”_ Athena asks, voice awake and alert despite her just waking up, and Jack has to keep from laughing nervously.

“Remember, _don’t_ tell her about me.”

Right.

“I love hearin’ myself talk, cupcake, nothin’ ya gotta worry your head over. You know, Nisha’s asleep, and I’d be caught dead talking to Sashay over there.” He answers, easily, and Rhys is staring at him blankly at how easily that answer just… escaped Jack.

Well, he doesn’t have an explanation for him and certainly isn’t gonna stand there and think of one. Noooot at all. No way. “Anyway, I’m gettin’ cooped up in this bandit shiticle, so I’ll be gettin’ some fresh air.”

Athena’s still glaring at him even as he’s climbing up and away from her line of sight, and Jack can still feel her glare on him like some sort of discomfort blanket. Rhys flickers up onto the roof of the caravan with him, farthest away from Gortys and Elbie, and he gestures at Jack to come over with his clawed fingers.

It takes two long strides for him to get there, and Jack is immediately sitting down cross-legged across from Rhys. He tucks his hands into the small space created by his legs, elbows resting on his thighs as he looks up at Rhys. He has his hands on his hips, staring off into the distance, and Jack thinks Rhys looks positively gorgeous against the blue backdrop of the world.

Sure, there’s… a very slight colour clash, but he still looks god damn gorgeous.

“I’d like to… say sorry.” Rhys begins, his hands coming together and his gaze focusing on Jack again. “I kind of lost control at the Hyperion base, and I really, really am sorry about that. I could’ve killed you, or your Nisha.”

Jack blinks. “Eh.” He says then shrugs. “Nothin’ ya really gotta apologise for, pumpkin.” He says slowly, uncertainly, and Rhys looks down at him with amused eyes.

“I did very nearly kill your companions. I think—I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Jack shrugs again. At that, Rhys continues talking. “I promise that I’ll try and keep in control next time; I don’t… normally go wild like that. You know, being a CEO you gotta be cool, calm… kill a few people here and there, but c’est la vie, non?”

“Riiiight. Gotta be—gotta be cool.” Jack murmurs, “cool and collected, totally. I can _do that._ Someday.” He swears he briefly catches some sort of—smile on Rhys’s scarred face, but it turns out to be one of amusement and nothing more. “Is that why you wanted to talk? To apologise for nothin’?”

“It _is_ something I gotta apologise for, honey.” Rhys says, and he slowly lowers himself into a sitting position to try and talk to Jack on a more even level. He’s sitting on air, but Jack applauds him for trying. “And given that you don’t really care, I’m gonna take it that I’m forgiven-“

“Yup.” He pops the p as he says that and Rhys stares at him before continuing. “So, I have one other question—no no, a _favour_ to ask of you, Jack. Just a small one; ain’t gonna take your time or anything.” Jack furrows his brow at that and Rhys flashes a disarming smile at him. “All I gotta know is that if you’re going to trust me. We’re like—business partners! Right?”

“So, if as business partners we can’t trust each other then shit’s gonna go down real fast, sweetheart.” Rhys claps his hands together, a big grin on his face as he regards Jack. “So, I just gotta know if you’re going to trust me like you did in the facility. Now, with—with my _unacceptable_ loss of control there, I don’t blame you if you’re ‘ehh’ about trusting me. It’s natural.”

Despite his reassurances, there’s something tense on Rhys’s face. His hands are clenched against each other, and Jack grins up at him. “ ‘course I trust ya. I mean, I almost trust you as much as Nisha, but well, she’s… different.” Rhys nods and Jack continues. “So, obviously, yes. I trust you. A whole bunch, actually; you got Atlas _preeehetty_ damn far, kitten, and I’d be dumb as hell not to trust you for all you did.”

There’s a wide smile on Rhys’s face, practically beaming even though he’s only a pink AI. “YES!” Rhys exclaims, actually _stands up_ with his exclamation, and as quickly as that happens he’s fixing himself up and exhaling. He rubs his face, though Jack doubts that’s really gonna be very effective, and then he’s “sitting down” again. “Sorry, sorry I just— _you_ have no clue how nervous I was.”

He laughs, sweet and easy, with his hands still rubbing his face and Jack can’t help but relax. He briefly glances over to Gortys and Elbie when Gortys makes a small comment about him talking to air, before he’s looking back to the happy and joyous Rhys. He’s giggling now, one hand pressing against his mouth to soothe his laughter, and his shoulders eventually sag.

“I thought—I thought I got rid of that habit.” Rhys says with a sigh, voice like melted chocolate, and Jack is _blessed._ “Right, right, okay, I’m me now. But—well, now that you trust me and I, well, I trust you, Jack. What was I saying? Oh- now that you trust me, I owe ya somethin’.”

“What do you want, Jack?”

He looks away at that, stares off at the area around them and—

There are a lot of things he wants.

_‘Atlas.’_

_‘My grandmother dead.’_

_‘A better life for Angel.’_

_‘Power. Money.’_

“I wanna save Pandora.” Jack says, quietly, when he looks back at Rhys, and the CEO’s eyebrows both shoot up in surprise. “This place—yeah, yeah, it’s a scumhole with shit-eating bandits that don’t know left from right. But there are… _some_ okay peo—barely, barely okay people here. A planet fulla potential doesn’t deserve this.”

Rhys is tapping his knee at that, eyes focusing on Jack, and he stares back at him evenly. They don’t say anything for a while, the sound of the caravan being the only thing to break the silence, before Rhys finally smiles at him.

“You’ll save Pandora, Jack.” Rhys coos out, eyelids drooping. “I know you will.” At that, Jack can’t help but grin widely and bring his hand up and Rhys stares at the palm of his Atlas arm. “What… are you doing, Jack?”

“A high-five.”

“Jack I’m a-“

“C’mon, give it a go?”

“ _Jack-“_

“High-five!”

Rolling his eyes, Rhys shifts around so that he’s kneeling on the car roof now and he brings his hand up as well. His hand moves in, _phases_ through his palm, and Jack can’t help but look at his own hand with disappointment. “That… wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped.”

“I’m a _hologram_ Jack, I have no clue what you were expecting.” Despite that, there’s a small smile on Rhys’s face. “Anyway, I’m gonna go now before your friends come up and lookin’ for you.” They both stand up, and Jack acts without thinking.

He finger guns Rhys’s way and he’s about to feel embarrassed until the hologram is returning his finger guns with greater gusto.

Then, just like that, Rhys is gone and Jack has to go back to the caravan now.

* * *

“Huh.” Jack says when he comes to see the site they’re supposed to be at—it’s not what he expected in this hellhole of a place.

“I recognise this place.” Rhys flickers into view, his arms crossing in front of him as he stares at the plantarium. “Before Hyperion fell, we – by we I mean Atlas and Hyperion – collaborated to make this plantarium. It was our first attempts at giving life to Pandora by trying to make the natural flora of this planet thrive, but it… didn’t work out.”

Rhys shrugs, and he looks over to Athena who strides up to the entrance of the plantarium with her hands on her hips. “I’ve never known about this place before.” She comments, and Fiona looks at her curiously. Nisha comes up to stand next to Jack, her eyes on him when he seems to just look this place over with the barest of reactions.

“It looks like… they were trying to grow life here.” Sasha comments, her hands rubbing her arms as she shivers and shakes in the cold night air of Pandora. “Wh-which is… funny, be-because I thought _everyone_ in the… hoofffff… shoulda gotten a jacket—thought everyone in the— _companies_ were murderous scumbags.”

Jack ignores her pointed look his way and he merely makes way into the plantarium, surrounded by all of the weird flora and there are a lot of mushrooms. Scanning them over, he’s – very briefly surprised to realise that it’s _Rhys_ who is explaining all this shit to him.

_‘This particular type of mushroom was used as ancient spiritual medicine by the original settlers of Pandora. They used to crush and grind these and then snort them. Don’t do it, by the way, they give you nose freeze.’_

_‘I remember this fungi—someone in the… god, can’t remember, PR? Whatever; someone in PR ordered a bunch of this after discovering about this fungi before we really identified it and then he threw a party for everyone to have the fungi he put in like—cake? I think he baked it into a cake. Everyone was vomiting multi-coloured bile for days.’_

Jack blinks at the two explanations he catches from the first two fungi he scanned, and he immediately sets about to wasting his time scanning _everything_ and everyone in this place.

Even when Rhys starts to get agitated with him at some point because, apparently, _you’re wasting your god damn time, Jack._

Still, it’s fun while it lasts.

* * *

They stumble upon Cassius, and Jack is forced to leave with Sasha to go and try and hack the security. Nisha’s forced to stay behind as guard duty, mostly because Athena said so and not even Fiona’s desperate ‘I’m totally in love with you’ begging can get Nisha to convince Athena and her to switch places.

Something in Athena says that she has some personal talk with Fiona, and Nisha doesn’t want to _intrude_ – or rather she doesn’t want to deal with Athena’s rage.

But fuck sake, at least Nisha could have come with him instead of Sasha who seems— _so angry_ at him all the damn time. It’s, very frankly, rude and uncal—maybe mostly uncalle—somewhat uncalled for. Some—somewhat.

So, really, this is the worst thing ever. He listens to Sasha talk about August, about Jack somewhat impressing her, and Jack responds as sarcastically as he can to her.

He squats at the bridge once they’re done talking, his eyes roaming across the beautiful, jungle environment and he looks out a soft ‘huh’ at the sight. Atlas and Hyperion did _a lot_ of work here. “You know,” Sasha begins, “now that I’m used to this place, it actually… it looks very-“

“Beautiful.” Jack finishes for her without thinking, and he doesn’t look at her when he notices his mistake. Crap—he hopes she doesn’t think that means he’s _whatever_ ; the place is legitimately beautiful.

Even in Hesperides, Jack never got the opportunity to go and see the garden houses that Rhys had built into Atlas; a change of scenery for _everyone_ to enjoy if they had the time and Jack never did. He always did want to go see the ones full of greenery from Hephaestus, Hestias, and – more specifically – his home planet, Eden-5.

When they’re back on Hesperides, he makes it a note to himself to go visit that place if he can. Which, knowing the shit he has pulled, is probably gonna take a loooong time but it’s better than nothing. He shakes his head when he notices he’s distracted and, thankfully, Sasha herself is busy being distracted too.

Perfect.

 “C’mon, what’re you _doing_ cupcake? We gotta get going and—aw _c’mon!_ A freakin’ gap?” Hearing that, Sasha runs past him and jumps first, her landing causing the bridge to shake ever so slightly, and he has to refrain from wanting to punch her.

Before Sasha can even comment, he’s jumping the gap as well. The bridge beneath them shakes, and Sasha looks like she’s about to say something that’s going to piss Jack off before her expression falls.

And that isn’t the only thing that falls.

Very abruptly, Jack finds himself digging his fingers into the fallen bridge and Sasha clings to his legs desperately. “This— _this_ is one of the times I am _so glad_ you are trying to overcompensate.”

“Shut up or I’ll kick you off!”

There are so many betters way he could be spending his time, and Jack is clawing at the bridge to try and climb it and they’re _almost_ there [thank you gym membership and prosthetics!] when the bridge collapses even further. He looks down to survey the damage and immediately lets go.

Maybe he should have given some warnings first, because despite how close they are to the ground they end up falling in an awful heap that they have to separate themselves from. He’s going to need a bath to get rid of the Pandoran from him.

They end up wandering for a bit, and Jack finds a flower that he can’t help but pluck from its… tree… branch… _thing_ and place onto the pocket of his jacket—

Which turns out to be the reason why his life is a miserable mess and why he needs to be the CEO of Atlas already, because now they’re being chased by slow and angry jellyfish; they’re very angry.

Very, very angry.

At least he manages to still hack and turn off the security system (with a lot of yelling from Fiona’s side; to be fair, he can hear a lot of gunshots and Sasha is pressuring him to try harder because 1) her sister and 2) angry jellyfish to let Fiona and Athena through.

Then he has to try and run away from more angry jellyfish. Pandora is just—it’s a treat. What else is he going to run from today? Or… tomorrow. Fuck, why are the days on this damn planet so damn long? He hates this planet.

He can’t wait to save it.

“Okay, Jack, _run!_ We need to get away and— ** _Jack, watch out! Look at where you’re going you dolt!_** ”

Jack can’t even answer her sarcastically, because before she can even finish her warning he’s already fallen off of the elevator as a jellyfish rams into his chest.

* * *

 

 

 

_“Don’t worry about it, honey.”_

_“I’m here for you.”_

_“I’ll just take over for a bit, and try not to bring any suspicions onto you.”_

_“Sleep well, sweetheart.”_

 

 

* * *

 

Jack’s hands are larger than his own. Even though they’re—well, one is a through-and-through prosthetic, old and probably uniquely made by someone somewhere, and the other one is the design of his latest experimental cybernetic arm available to the public.

Or, well, rather to the people of Hesperides. He isn’t all that… what’s the word for it? He isn’t all that enthusiastic to expose more than guns to the people of Pandora. He has, however, reached out to the other planets—

Rather, he had. He _had_ reached out to them.

Jack’s entire physique is larger than his own. Broader shoulders, wide back, thick thighs and a strong musculature…

Yep. It’s a very odd experience, but Rhys is smiling nonetheless and Sasha is looking at him oddly as he makes a point to not antagonise her. He doesn’t really have the time for her passive-aggressiveness, or her aggressiveness in general actually.

He traces over everything he can, thumbs at plants and drags his hand over the walls and there’s a satisfied feeling blooming in his chest as the cybernetic arm works as it _should._

If he’s guessing correctly, Athena should also be back at the little base they’ve set up—with Cassius.

The last Hyperion employee on Pandora. Oh—he remembers, vividly, the grudge the gladiator has against all Hyperion employees, and he can’t help the grin that tugs on his lips as he thinks of how he’s going to expose Cassius to them all.

Perhaps he should do it like Jack? He is borrowing his body, right? So maybe he should try and act like him… but as well, Rhys is _Rhys._

He has to be himself in some way, right?

When they’re back at the base, he decides it. Cassius is a nervous little mess, and Nisha is glaring at him. Fiona and Athena only returned minutes before them, so Rhys has to assume that Nisha knows something and has yet to tell the two women.

Well, that’s fine. He takes the stage. “Athena!” Rhys sings out, and it’s Jack’s voice that flows from his lips as he strides his way over to her. “I know, we just came back, yes yes—we took our time, and I am _sorry_ about that. We had an...” he waves his hands around, head tilting side to side before he shrugs. “… incident with the local fauna. But anyway! We’re here now—and we’ve got a _surprise_ for you, ho- cupcake.”

The word is foreign in his mind. It’s familiar on Jack’s tongue.

“What is it?” Athena says, voice tense and suspicious, and Rhys is nothing but all smiles as he responds without even stuttering.

_“Cassius is the last living Hyperion employee on Pandora.”_

 

There’s no bloodshed like he hoped and, with that disappointment tucked away in the back of Rhys’s head, he gives control back to Jack the moment he’s sent flying because Vallory just shot a rocket their way.

Wonderful.

* * *

Coming to is great.

That is, until his entire body aches and he has to chase after Gortys because bloody— _bloody Vallory_ is back and **_he hates this death planet so much._**

He’s able to keep up with the aggressively fleeing Gortys, though he’s – luckily – very quickly saved by Sasha and Elbie from outta nowhere.

Jack did _not_ yell in utter surprise when he’s thrown into the air, grabbed, and then slammed squarely onto Elbie’s shoulder. How the hell did that—no, he’s not—he’s not going to question it. He somehow did not _die_ despite flying out of a caravan that was travelling at a rate of two-hundred and fifty kilometres per minute, so really, why question things now?

[Now that he thinks about it, how did he and Nisha survive that?]

Sasha jumps off after a bit, and Jack sighs as he pulls his stun baton out and gets ready to beat the shit outta some goons with the rod.

At least he gets to taste some violence, even though his entire body hurts like a mammoth and elephant and rakkhive sat on him all at the same time.

“WE WILL DO FINE.” Elbie tells him when Jack groans from the pain, and he pets him with his free hand. He thinks Elbie purrs at that, but he’s not sure what sound it is that the robot companion makes.

It doesn’t matter; with a good few idiots wonderfully smacked into trees, into pain, and into _misery,_ Jack pets Elbie urgently and the robot follows his lead with surprising grace. He speeds up, hunches a little bit, and then uses his hands to propel them forward onto the fast moving vehicle that Sasha is currently on. Speaking of Sasha; she’s grabbing tightly at the next Gortys upgrade, tugging it back and forth with August, and Jack decides _not_ to interfere.

This is not his problem.

“ _YOU KNOW, WE NEVER OFFICIALLY BROKE UP,”_ August yells over the roaring of the engine, and Jack can’t help but share a look with Elbie before he’s crawling his way over to the front of the car, hoping to at least get Gortys’s attention and let her know that everything is okay.

“ _EX **CUSE ME?** ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TALKING ABOUT THIS NOW? OUR RELATIONSHIP STATUS? YOU KNOW-“_

_“YEAH, WHICH IS WHY I’VE BEEN THINKING-“_

_“YOU CAN THINK?”_

_“—THAT I’M GOING TO BREAK UP WITH YOU RIGHT NOW.”_

He gently taps at the back of Gortys’s head and she turns over briefly to see him, still rolling forward, and Jack gives her a fatherly smile. “Heya girl.” He says, and the panic on Gortys’s face is immediately gone. “You doin’ okay?” As best she can, the small robot nods. “Okay, just wanted to let you know that we’re here, and that your upgrade is… on its… way. Kinda.”

**_“ARE YOU CRAZY?”_ **

_“I—YEAH. I SOUND PRETTY CRAZY RIGHT NOW, RIGHT? I MEAN, WHO BREAKS UP WITH SOMEONE WHILE THEY’RE ABOUT TO DIE?”_

“Are you sure?” Gortys whispers, and Jack nods. As though on cue, August manages to rip the upgrade chassis away from Sasha, only to have Elbie smack it towards Gortys – Aquatorian football style, he wants to say – and Gortys is jumping up.

Her face is awfully determined, a small light and beep radiating and sounding from her antennae, and there’s a flash of light before she falls back down onto the ground with her new legs.

Jack has never been more proud in his entire life than literally every moment that Angel exists.

The pride doesn’t exist for long though, because they’re all going flying and landing in uncomfortable positions, and Vallory shows up with a shit-eating grin on her face.

“He _llo_ there kids, I think you have an… item of mine.”

He hates this woman.

* * *

It takes him being tied up to realise that Nisha isn’t around, and the panic immediately settles in. “Nisha?  _Nisha?_ NISHA! Where the  _hell_ are you? NISHA!?” he yells out, stopped only when Vallory smacks the back of his head – hard – and Jack grits his teeth and hisses as he’s led away by August and his lackeys.

Fiona’s… on the ground. Struggling pathetically against a rocket launcher. Jack can only really stare at her and she’s giving him the fiercest look she can manage.

She reminds him of the first ever cat he got for Angel. Always looked angry, but [very rarely sometimes] was a sweetheart. Except Fiona isn’t a god damn sweetheart at all.

“Now, kiddo, I won’t hurt your friends… only thing you gotta tell me is where the last upgrade is.” He looks over to Gortys, watches as Vallory kneels in front of the scared thing, and Jack’s paternal instincts are screaming at him to _do something._

“Hey, hey Gortys,” Fiona speaks out, “it’s gonna be okay, okay? Don’t get scared, just—just do what she says until we figure out what to do, okay?”

“We’re not gonna be mad.” Jack pipes in, and Gortys is looking between them both before she sighs and slumps her shoulders.

Turning around, the little robot shifts and projects her compass up for them all to see. She looks up at the sky, and does something… close to an exhale. “It’s…” she raises her small hand and points up.

They follow the movement of her finger.

“Up there. **_On Hesperides_**.”

Jack’s heart is hammering against his chest before it then plummets back into his stomach as something heavy dawns on him.

He looks at Vallory, at Gortys, and then focuses back on the space station far above them all in front of Pandora’s moon.

Hesperides waits with its ever watchful eye, and Jack feels flutters in his stomach when he realises he’s going to be able to go home.

Even if for a little while.


	4. Dawn

They have to go back to Hesperides and honestly, honestly, _very honestly,_ Jack is elated about it. He gets to go back – maybe even get the brief chance to talk to Angel and see if she’s okay or not – and then come back and _chase a freaking vault._ Which, though cool, is deadly. Which, also, may not happen because Vallory wants the vault first and Jack—

Well. Vallory is huge and she has a gun. Jack doesn’t. So one of them is at an obvious disadvantage here, and it sure as hell includes Rhys in the package of disadvantage. Of course, that isn’t the only disadvantage here—

No one knows where Nisha is, and Jack may or may not be low-key panicking about the fact that he doesn’t know where she is. A part of him reminds him that Nisha’s _pretty damn badass._ She can take care of herself with the shield he swiped for her during that little rumble in the rally, no problem. Doesn’t mean that he’s handling it well, though.

Nisha’s the second best thing in his entire life and he rather not lose her, thank you very much. So whoever that is out there, hearing him and listening to him: _please let Nisha be safe._

Perhaps it’s a stupid, sappy thing to hope for, but well- Jack can’t really deal with another loss in his miserable little life.

Anyway, back to the real meat of things.

They need a plan, and the sisters are arguing with each other and August over what to do. He’s sitting next to Gortys, gently rubbing her head while she’s sulking, her eyes downturned and lips forming a frown; Jack cradles her close until she finally, gently, sits on his lap, somehow dismisses her legs [advanced Hyperion technology?] and curls up into a ball on his lap.

She’s in her offline mode, and Jack supposes that all the argument is getting to her finally. He tries not to sigh loudly as to bring attention to himself, because he’s honestly very damn tired and pissed off.

Also, his body still hurts so Jack may be slightly grumpy because of that. He hasn’t heard from Rhys in a while and he closes his eyes, breathes in and out deeply, and tries not to groan when the yelling just seems to get worse and worse.

Apparently, none of them have any idea on what to do to actually get into Hesperides and they don’t even know _where_ to start looking. Hesperides is huge, and trying to search the entire thing will take forever.

“Yo, Jackass. My m- Vallory wants the bot back.” He hears August say from up above him, and he’s glaring at him as he unwillingly parts with Gortys. The asshole’s gone very briefly once Gortys is back to her new and improved self and holding his hand, and Jack notes that once she’s already out of her form she’s looking at August with what he thinks is an uncomfortable look.

August returns to more _god damn arguing,_ and Jack hates the fact that he can relate to the way that the princess is feeling right now. This is ridiculous, and Jack doesn’t even want to-

“Someone’s looking damaged.” He hears Rhys say and, from the corner of his eyes, he sees flickering pink. It’s gone but not for long as Rhys manages to flicker in front of him. He’s sitting on an invisible chair, legs crossed in front of him and his foot bouncing in the air. He has one hand under his chin, with the other arm draped over his lap. “I’m… really pissed off about that.”

Jack looks around, checking to make sure no one is paying attention to him, and he leans back to look up at Rhys. “Pumpkin,” he whispers, “I could really use your help.” Rhys looks at him curiously, and he’s crossing his arms now. He leans back, looking like the emperor he claims to be, and his expression is calm, content. “We need the last Gortys piece.”

He taps his arm in thought, and something seems to dawn on him – maybe he remembered something? – and then Rhys flickers away, standing at the table where everyone else is arguing at. He leans over it, hands spread as though he’s reading a map, and there’s a smile on Rhys’s face. “Well,” he begins, voice gleeful, “there was an auction once- I attended it, mostly… because I really wanted to flaunt my wealth, but anyway…”

“The auction had some stolen Hyperion goods, which was more than great given that we… had a fallout after a while.” Something in Rhys’s voice sours, but he’s back to sweet and kind when he’s talking again. “I won, of course, so I had myself a few assorted goods. Some were… worthless and weird. Who makes a gun that has a fist attachment? That’s just… kinda really unnecessary. But! Some—some I kept in my office.”

He’s flickering back in front of Jack, hands clasping together and a smile on his face. “I’m sure you can see where this is going.”

“It’s in your office.” Jack says softly, as to not bring attention to himself, and Rhys finger guns his way. _“Bingo,_ ” the CEO says in response and Jack stands up. He claps his hands together, and he breathes in deeply when that doesn’t work.

He slams his hand onto the wall of the caravan and the resulting bang is loud enough to surprise everyone – even Rhys, who lets out the most adorable yelp and widens his eyes, jolting in place from surprise – and Jack grins. “Alright, ladies, now that your attention is on me, _I_ can tell you where the Gortys project is and it is in _Rhys’s old office._ ”

“ **How** do you know? _How_ can you be so sure you know?” Sasha’s accusing him immediately, even before he gets to say anything more, and Jack glares her way at the _very_ rude interruption. He doesn’t even know why he’s-

Well, to be fair, he’s not surprised. Mostly just agitated.

“I’m a fanboy.” Is the only answer Jack gives, and he can’t help but grin a shark’s grin at the disgusted face that Fiona and Sasha pull. “But—anyway. The last piece is in Rhys’s office- trust me on this.”

“You’re talking outta your ass.” August says simply, his arms crossing in front of him and a glare forming on his face. “There is _no way_ that it’s in his office.”

Rhys flickers next to him, his hands on his hips and his brows furrowing.  “Why wouldn’t it be in my office? What is this asshole saying?” Rhys says, and Jack surreptitiously glances towards him to take in the angry way he holds himself.

Damn. He kinda wishes he can see the real Rhys, in the flesh, when he gets angry because Jack can only imagine—

He shakes his head and glares at August, who is grinning at him like he thinks Jack has no argument. Just as he’s about to talk, Jack slams his hand on the wall again and surprises everyone, and Rhys jolts in surprise.

“Call Gortys up- she’ll confirm it.” Jack says afterwards, and he smugly watches as August does as he asked and his grin is going to split his face at the way August’s face twists in absolute horror that Jack is right. He cracks his fingers, ignoring the way the sisters just stare at him in pure, utter disbelief, and Jack’s leaning in to look at the seated two. “And luckily for you, _I have a plan.”_

* * *

It’s a damn good plan. Disguise Jack as Vasquez – much to his utter disgust – and have… Scooter, of all people, work on creating the rocket for them. Finch and Kroger –  _assholes_ – are the ones that ‘escort’ him to where Vasquez’s is body is supposed to be.

He can’t believe it’s dark already.

The ride there is bumpy and uncomfortable, because Finch and Kroger are _assholes_ and he really wants to punch them and dislocate their jaw. He can’t give it a shot – because they have guns – but at least Jack can fantasize about how he’d mess them up later.

Those two are _part_ of the scum that infects Pandora. He exhales heavily through his mouth when he thinks about—about the state this planet is in. A planet that is _full_ of ancient ruins and alien artifacts, ripe for the study, yet it’s also overrun with murderers and bandits.

When he gets back to Hesperides, maybe he can—he can somehow continue what Rhys started. He _can_ fix Pandora, he knows he can. It’s… like his destiny…

… … Okay, not really. It’s more like he just wants to fix Pandora because there’s a deep part of him that wants this planet fixed. The decent people here – the ones who struggle and turn into bandits out of necessity – don’t deserve this shit.

“ _Shit!”_ Jack yells when the car comes to a sudden halt, nearly throwing him off with how roughly it jolts. He’s grabbed by one of them – Finch? Aw hell, he’s just gonna call them Burnt Face and Mustachio now – and forced to stand.

At least his hands are free now, even though he has to do a dumb dance to try and avoid being shot by a Torgue gun—Burnt Face could’ve killed him just then.

He hates the bandits of this place.

“Right,” he’s talking to himself now, and he can’t help but relax when he sees flickering pink nearby, “just grab Vasquez’s body and you’re outta this shithole.” He kneels down, grabs at the facedown Vasquez, and—

**_HOLYFUCKHEHASNOFACE._ **

He yells and stands up immediately, eyes wide in pure surprise at the— _ohhhooooly shit_ that is just—

“Face? The face is _missing_ a face?” Jack points at him then. “Face? I’m se- no face. There is **no face** on—where is—oh holy fu- crap. Oh Holy Crap.”

Rhys is peeking over then and he hears him snicker. “I think—I think Wallethead’s face was used for a _skin pizza._ ”

“Wh—why did— _why_ did you tell me **that** _I just ate—_ ohhh no. _Oh shhhcraashit._ Shit.” He rubs at his own face then, suddenly _really_ grateful that it’s _actually on his face_ , and Rhys is laughing next to him. “I gotta—I gotta go get his face. I gotta go—oh _for –_ why. _Why is Pandora such a shithole._ I hate this—why.”

He breathes in and out a few times, trying to calm the _shock_ over the fact that _Vasquez is missing his face what the **HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS PLANET.**_

Okay. He’s calm. He flicks his hand, activating the light on his cybernetic arm, and Rhys is following after him. Sometimes, he’s disappearing and reappearing onto one of the nearby crates, sitting on them with his legs crossed, before he’s flickering back into existence next to Jack.

“Watch out for the wire.” Rhys calls out as he moves forward, and Jack blinks before he looks down to see what he’s talking about.

Huh.

So the bandits on this planet seem to know how to take care of themselves. That’s… that’s kind of weird, but Jack isn’t going to think about _why_ it’s weird. He steps over it carefully, kneels next to where it is and uses his prosthetic to disable the trap before he’s going back to find Vasquez’s _—_ his...

Ghhrgghh… _face._

“That is—that is a lot of sleeping psychos.” Rhys says with a whistle, and Jack turns the corner just in time to see what he means. He thinks, for the first time, that he understands what true despair is now. “At least they’re all tuckered out from their pizza party—they’re… almost cute. In a weird ‘I’m wearing the faces of the people I ate’ way.”

“They didn’t eat Vasquez.” Jack points out.

“He looks like nothing but fatty oil and sleaze and looks like he’d taste that way too.”

“Point made.”

He ever so carefully makes his way around the psychos, stepping over them daintily like a ballerina, and he thanks his stars that he’s able to sneak past them all without waking any of them up. The last thing he wants to deal with is _a lot_ of psychos.

They seem like nasty shits. He scans over them as he passes them, focused intently on just finding _one_ person, and _hgghhh_ Rhys’s commentary on the faces is seriously not helping.

 _Ah yes. There it is. The pinnacle of **DISGUSTING.**_ Is the only commentary he gets from Rhys when he gets to the last psycho, and he doesn’t have to take two guesses to realise that Rhys is talking about Vasquez’s face.

He really hates that guy. Jack is almost jealous.

“This is gonna be so gross.” Jack whispers as he reaches out and grabs at the very edge of the face-mask on the psycho-mask. He flinches as he starts to peel the face off, Rhys kneeling next to the sleeping psycho and he’s just grinning up at Jack.

 _‘Well, I’m happy to see that **ONE PERSON** is enjoying himself.’ _He thinks sourly as he ever so gently, rolls the skin off of the psycho’s mask. It’s making a disgusting, almost sucking noise as he tries to get it off, and he can’t believe the shit he’s forced to do for the sake of—

“ _Grooooss—_ Jack, the face is **stuck**.”

 

 

“Kill me.”

“No.”

Well, he tried. He takes in a deep breath and leans close. Pinching at where the mask is stuck, he pops – ohh no, bad imagery, hffg – the flabby skin off and Rhys is grimacing. _Now_ he actually looks like he’s going to vomit ‘ones and zeros’ and Jack nearly trips over a psycho in his haste to yank the face away.

At least he got the face?

He takes a step back, trips over the psycho he _narrowly missed previously,_ and ends up waking the sleeping beauty up. Yeah.

Pandora sucks.

* * *

The body is in… pieces. Because Burnt Face is an asshole and Jack hates him so much. The face is on his lap, staring up at him like some sort of—taunt or something from beyond the grave, and Jack is glaring at it. Rhys is sitting next to him, gaze going from the face to Jack himself, and then back to the face.

“Do you… really have to look like that sleazebag?” Rhys asks, and Jack shrugs at him. “Is there really no other way to do this?” Jack shakes his head. “… uffhh, you’re right. Why not tell them that you’ll turn yourself in? Last I checked, I had a pretty reasonable security.”

Jack looks up at Rhys. “They’re after me for what’s in my head,” Jack says extremely quietly, “since you died, your uh—right hand woman and man started to get violent.” Rhys hums and nods at that. “If I handed myself in for the ten mill, they’d kill me. If I handed myself in for you in my head, they’d kill me.”

Rhys purses his lips. “And you also don’t have weapons.” Rhys adds, a frown on his face as he stares at the moving environment around them. “Dammit.”

“Oh, and let’s not forget that Sasha and Fiona would fu-screw my ass, and I don’t mean that with pegging. I mean, don’t get me wrong I’d like a good pegging, but they’d probably get really mad and yell or whatever.” Rhys rolls his eyes at and the CEO disappears finally and Jack is left to close his eyes and pray for at least a ten minute nap.

The ride is bumpy, however, which denies him of his nap and… the scenery that he’s now taking in is nicer bathed in the darkness of night.

It reminds him of the starry blankets he bought for Angel. They were expensive _as hell_ and cost more than half of Jack’s salary, but Angel’s face shone so bright that Jack finds himself smiling fondly at the moving ground as Burnt Face and Mustachio drive away.

They’re back at Scooters before Jack can really comprehend it, and he supposes it’s because he… actually did take a small nap. So, thank God for small things, right? Whatever. He’s untied, finally, and he picks up the face and holds it up high for both the jackasses to see.

Mustachio goes green in the face and he looks away, trying not to acknowledge the thin flap of _face_ that Jack is holding and Burnt Face just shuffles away into the car. He grins, makes his way inside of Scooter’s, and immediately loses his grin when he sees the sisters and princess getting ready to infiltrate Hesperides.

Fiona’s wearing black, magenta and sky blue, and Sasha herself is digistructing one of the Atlas employee outfits. It warms his heart to see something familiar in this wretched hellhole, though his heart freezes over immediately when Sasha turns around, smile on her face gone so that she can instead glare at Jack and damn his very existence.

He waves the face at her, and her expression falls drastically, and Fiona’s looking their way only to flinch and look away immediately.

“Is that-“

“The psychos had a skin pizza party.”

Fiona groans loudly. “Of- of course. Right. Hhhhooohh. You just never get used to this stuff.” She murmurs, and he freezes up before the quick change station at that.

Jack looks at her, opens his mouth to say something, but he’s quickly looking back at the quick change station and ignoring the discomfort settling in his belly. He brings the face up to the quick change for it to scan, and he happily throws the thing away once it’s been scanned in.

Worst. Experience. Ever.

Sidestepping, Jack breathes in and exhales, and waits for the quick change station to do its magic. A small little voice modulator appears on his throat, looking – thankfully – minimalistic and easy enough to dismiss as an accessory or whatever. He rubs at his neck and clears his throat.

“Testing, testiiiiing? Perfect. I sound like a shithole.” Jacquez – get it? _Jacquez_ – places his hands on his hips and turns to face the sisters. He puffs his chest up and Sasha is rolling her eyes at him—and Jack realises that he’s significantly shorter now. “Well? How do I look?” he grabs at his lapels and flutters them, tilts his head, and grins up at the ceiling.

“Amazing, you look like _an even worse_ douchebag.” Sasha sings, and Jack finger guns her way.

Hey, as long as she’s technically calling Vasquez the bigger douchebag and not Jack, then he’s totally fine with her attitude.

“Well,” Fiona claps her hands together and smirks, “time to get this show on the road.”

_‘Yeah. Back to Hesperides we go.’_

* * *

Scooter’s joining them in on the trip, and Jack closes his eyes and breathes in and out deeply to soothe the nausea in his stomach. He has been on—on countless shuttle rides. A shit ton, actually. You don’t live Jack’s miserable life without having to travel all around the world, so he’s used to it.

But he has _never ever_ ridden in a shitty caravan turned into an even shittier ‘shuttle’ [if someone can even call it that] and Jack’s breathing slowly, he’s breathing slowly, he’s br—

Nope. _No._ Here comes the bile—

He looks over to August with vengeance in his eyes and August looks back with horror clear in his own.

 _‘Serves you right,’_ Jack thinks once the messy deed is done and the other is wasting his time trying to clean himself up. Sasha and Fiona don’t acknowledge him at all, and Burnt Face and Mustachio are busy holding onto each other for dear life to really care.

It’s a bumpy ride that gets even worse when Elbie informs them that they are all probably going to die a messy, agonizing death if someone doesn’t do something soon enough. He looks at Fiona and Scooter, watches them disappear to the vast beyond outside the caravan, and he looks up at the ceiling and mentally crosses his fingers.

 

 

He looks out over to Pandora after a while, once Fiona and Scooter seem to have done their work, and his eyes widen as he catches sight of Scooter flying past them, hand stuck, while straddling one of the large ass rockets.

 _“CATCH A RIIIIIIIIII—“_ Scooter yells, his voice getting more and more distant as he speeds away to Pandora, and –

The explosion is large enough to see from even in the caravan.

Moments after, Fiona’s back into the caravan. Her eyes are downcast, and she looks far, far older than she is and no one really comments on how she looks. There’s a quiet sort of… understanding among each other; Burnt Face nods at Fiona and looks away, Mustachio is looking at her with a quiet, glossy look in his eyes and August – princess is looking down at his lap.

“We’re honouring him.” Fiona says, and Jack bites his lip to keep himself from snidely stopping them. It’s _Dahl—_ Atlas hates Dahl almost as much as they hate Pandora, but Jack thinks he’ll stay quiet so that Fiona can do what soothes her nerves and emotions.

The Dahl advertisement is sent out into space, and Jack wants to find the _See You Space Cowboy_ thing as funny.

Mood’s too heavy for that, though, and Jack’s feeling awfully uncomfortable in the negative air. There’s really no time to grieve, but everyone around him is trying.

There’s a quiet tightness in his chest, one that Jack ignores, and he exhales through his mouth to try and slow down his frantically beating heart.

Hesperides isn’t too far away, so he turns his eyes away from Pandora – peaceful and beautiful from far away, yet full of lowlifes and scum – and focuses on the view in front of him instead. Hesperides slowly approaches, a giant H that screams of home, and Jack has to struggle to not smile. In the back of his head, he can hear Rhys snickering and snorting midway.

* * *

“Listen, pals, I’ve got a  _very important body_ to deliver here to—you know, the big bad two at the top?” He pops the ‘p’ as he’s talking, the two officers not letting up their ruthless verbal assault of Jacquez here and he’s—

Yeah, he’s kind of dreading it all. “You know, _Jack?_ The good looking one who ran off with ten mill? Had something im-por- _tant_ in his _head?_ ”

“Listen, bub,” one of the officers hiss out, his arms crossing in front of him as he looks down on _short ass Jacquez because why is he so damn short._ “We’ve never heard of no _Jack_ with shit in his head, so you better _start explainin’—“_

Someone shadows over them both, and Jack knows only one other man that’s taller than him [though maybe that doesn’t apply since he’s Vasquez right now].

“I’ll handle this,” a gruff voice says, belonging to no other than Wilhelm, and the officer is looking between them both before shrugging. He gestures at his pal to follow him, and they’re both gone.

He looks up at Wilhelm with his mouth about to open and maybe clue Wilhelm in on the plan—

“Vasquez.” He says sternly. “What happened to _our deal?”_

Then his brain just comes to a sudden and abrupt _halt_ and he has to keep himself from looking at Wilhelm like an idiot. “Well uhh… ya think ya can—give a me lil’ _refresher,_ eh? Bein’ on Pandora kinda made me forget.”

“…” Wilhelm lets out a suffering sigh, his shoulders slumping and he looks away—though he can’t tell why, exactly. The only expressions this man is capable of are pure, homicidal glee or stony acknowledgement. “Jack’s head.” Wilhelm replies before he’s kneeling before where the fake-Jack’s body is.

Opening the lid, he immediately slams it shut and glares up at Jacquez. “What. The hell. _Is this?”_

“The bo-“

“I know it’s the body- why’s it in pieces?” Wilhelm’s standing up and moving to stand in front of him, trying to look intimidating and if Jack didn’t know him he’d say it works.

The attempt at intimidation only serves to make Jack _angry,_ and he glares up at him. “Jack had an unfortunate accident. Y’know; fell down and broke his crown and all that. Sure, he’s in itty bitty pieces but… the important part of him is still there.”

Breathing heavily through his nose, Wilhelm looks over to a few folks waiting and gestures one of them over. “Check the body.” He looks back at Jacquez, his eyes narrowing. “Better not have fucked up, Vasquez.”

He shoves his way past him, stops briefly, and looks over his shoulder at Wilhelm. “Wouldn’t even dream of it, pal.”

* * *

Walking the hallways of Hesperides is… familiar. And awfully welcoming despite how people are glaring at him like they want to bite his nuts off and then shove him in a meat grinder.

He’s sure Rhys has done that to a few people before—not the bite their nuts off bit, but the shove people in a meat grinder to kill them way. He doesn’t know _where_ the human meat grinder is, but he knows it exists and he shudders thinking about it.

Rounding a corner, Jack beams as he recognises _this_ particular path. He passes by the same Rhys poster from the very beginning, looks up at it before he looks away, trying not to get distracted by the pretty artwork, and rounds one more corner.

The doors taunt him, reminding him of what he could have had, and Jack takes in a deep breath and exhales after a bit. He steps forward once and the doors slide open to let him into the empty, vast office.

Pandora stares at him from the other side of the window, and he doesn’t think about it as he marches his way over to the chair and sits down. The computer projects up and Jack rolls his eyes at the password protection.

He flicks his hand, and jolts when a pink hand rests itself on his wrist. “You gonna hack in, sweetheart?” Rhys coos, “you need some help?”

“Nah.” Jack says, his voice normal and its wonderful self again. “I’m a _programmeeeer._ This shit is like, my job. Besides I uh… figured out how to break in years ago.” He coughs into his prosthetic fist at that reaveal and Rhys is looking at him blankly. “I was curious, okay?”

Rhys rolls his eyes. “Whatever you say, handsome. Just hurry it up; I miss my old office.”

He shrugs at that and focuses back on breaking into the system. It’s a bit mind numbing—not that… not that the security is _weak_ or whatever. It’s just mind numbing now that Jack has _mastered breaking in._ It’s why he’s been working extra hard on—

Nevermind. Not important right now. He shakes his head and exhales. Rhys is floating in the air, looking as though he’s floating on his back in a pool or something. Jack smiles as he takes in the sight of the relaxed CEO, and his smile is gone soon enough when Rhys glances over to him.

He taps the com on his ear. “A’right, Fiona. I’m in; I can see you on the feed.”

Helping them out is easy enough; all he has to do now is wait. He rests his elbows on the desk and curls his fists at his chin, eyes staring at the computer screen, and Rhys is busy humming and floating lazily in the office.

“Jack,” Rhys begins at some point, “do you miss Nisha?”

He blinks. “ ‘course I do. She’s… my world. Second to someone else. Of course.”

Floating his way in front of the desk, Rhys settles on his face and turns to look at Jack. He leans forward and rests his arms on the table, and he looks up at Jack curiously. “There’s someone else that important in your life?”

“Yep.” He answers without thinking, and he winces at the look Rhys gives him. “She’s… I’d do anything for her.” Jack lets his head fall back, against the plushness of the chair, and he sighs. “I’m doing this all for her. Got her away from my gramma ‘causa her.”

“Hm.” Rhys hums, but he doesn’t ask much more than that. “We’ll talk about Nisha and that other importance in your life soon enough, Jack.”

He shrugs at that. “Whatever, pumpkin.” He stops focusing on Rhys when Fiona is contacting him again, and he pinches the bridge of his nose when he realises that she needs help still. “Yeah, yeah, I got it—uhh… lemme check the… okay, there should be a tour guide coming to you—“

Someone’s making their way over to his office and Jack’s eyes widen when he sees it’s Wilhelm. “Listen, shit, cupcake I can’t talk—“

He ends the call the moment Wilhelm walks in, his expression even stonier than usual, and he narrows his eyes at him. “What are you doing in my office?” Wilhelm asks, the anger clear in his voice, and Jack bares his teeth at him and presses at his throat, at the device, to surreptitiously change his voice.

“What do you mean _your_ office?”

“This is _my_ office now. Especially now that we’ve found out the body is _fake._ ” Wilhelm’s stomping over to him, arms crossing in front of him and he’s glaring at Jack _viciously_ now. He’s far too used to Wilhelm’s rage to really flinch, so he glares back at him with as much anger as he can. “What’s the _deal?”_

“Well, buddy,” Jack hisses back, his hands curling into tight fists on the desk, “there was a minor little _setback_ and things didn’t go _exactly_ as planned.”

“We had a deal! The two up top are going to _kill us._ ”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have taken it if you knew the **_risks?!_** Why even _betray_ them like that, anyway!? Aren’t they your _damn friends?”_

He glares. “Money.” Wilhelm says, simply, and—well. Something in Jack, oddly enough, calms down. He’s still angry, but _not_ boiling with rage. Just—just burning with it, slightly. Maybe.

Rhys is standing next to him, having been briefly forgotten throughout the whole thing, and Jack breath hitches when Rhys gets close. “He betrayed you?” Rhys asks, disbelief mixed with… _something_ clear in his voice as he talks. “Sweetheart, I suggest knocking him out.”

When Wilhelm brings his hand up, about to contact security, Jack tenses up. “I mean _right now._ Use—use Dumpy, or your stun baton if you have to. You _can’t let this happen._ ”

He hates that Rhys is right. He glares at Wilhelm before he stands up, reaches for his stun baton, and presses the small little device on his throat.

“Hello, Willy.” Jack hisses out, his voice low and tone dark, and Wilhelm freezes up in surprise. He turns to face Jack, but the other has already lunged forward and Jack gives him a firm _smack_ with the baton.

He keeps at it for a bit; all his anger from Pandora, all the pent-up rage—he lets it loose on Wilhelm for a little bit, and stops only when something in the back of his head _tells_ him to stop. Breathing heavily, he feels his heart hammering against his chest and Jack puts the stun rod away.

Rhys is clapping for him when the doors slide open, a proud grin on his face, and Jack shakes with the adrenaline of _finally_ getting his anger out.

“That was a good look on you, honey.” Rhys says, and Jack smirks in response.

* * *

They’re walking in the hallway when Fiona calls him up again, and Jack nearly punches someone. “What—what do you  _mean you—_ you had  **_one job!”_ **  Jack nearly yells, and he presses himself against a corner as he waits for Fiona to explain her side.

“Well they—listen, they were all wearing… creepy _Rhys_ masks-“ he looks over to Rhys, because he’s sure he heard it, and the CEO is just looking at him with an aghast expression, “- and they were getting pushy and _listen._ Rhys’s office is—is locked, and I can’t get in.”

He rubs at his face. “I’ll call you again when I got an idea.” He says, and he hears Fiona let out a _“wait”_ right before he ends the call and looks over to Rhys. “So…”

“So she messed up.” Rhys says smoothly. “Use the trapdoor.”

“What?”

He arches an eyebrow at Jack’s response and he grins sheepishly at him. “My office has a trapdoor. It’s the deadly kind, but you can disable it at the prison ward—which is where all the mushy bits end up.”

“… Huh.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t know about this, you know, being my fanboy and all—“

“Well,” Jack begins, a tad affronted, “you have a lot of ways to kill someone, okay? I can’t keep track of _all_ of them, kitten.”

He laughs at Jack then, shakes his head, and then shrugs. “Well, whatever you say. Call your friend up and tell her you have a new plan that requires her getting arrested. _You_ can get there no problem.”

“Catch ya later, handsome.” Rhys says, finger gunning at Jack and he finger guns back, and there’s a smirk on Rhys’s face before he’s gone.

Well. Time to get going, he supposes.

* * *

_Accountants._

Of all the things he has to deal with _today,_ it has to be _Accountants._ He takes in a deep breath and exhales as he brings his finger gun up, and proceeds to indulge in this—this stupid thing that the accountants do.

And he gets _really_ into it. It gets to the point that, while he’s yelling and sliding down hand railings and shooting fake guns, dodging invisible grenades, and rolling away from bullet fire, Rhys appears in the middle of this mess.

He slides through Rhys, briefly catches the wide-eyed looked on his face at the sight of everyone yelling and hollering like idiots. Invisible bullets fly across the raging battlefield, and Jack is nothing if not competitive as he beats all these unfit assholes asses to hell and back.

“Wh—“ Rhys says, and that is all he seems to stutter throughout the whole thing as Jack is manoeuvring around these assholes in his attempt to _beat them the fuck up. Nobody messes with Jack and gets away with it._

There is a lot of dramatic screaming, and Rhys gapes when the Badass Accountant appears. “What?” He finally manages to finish the word, and Jack has to duck away from a rocket fired by the accountant. Rhys is just… standing there, a stark pink against all the silver and thin pink lines, and he keeps looking around at the ‘bodies’ strewn about the battlefield.

“What?” Rhys repeats again as Jack reaches for something in his—his foot, and throws it at the badass accountant that just… drops over. The distress on his face is _clear as the sky._ He breathes in and out heavily, exhales, and then brings out the guns he has been hiding and starts cackling maniacally as he spins in a circle and shoots.

Breathing heavily once the carnage is done and over with, Jack fixes his tie, straightens his lapels, smooths back his hair, and makes his way over to the elevator. Turning around, he places one hand on his hip and shoots one finger gun, a big grin on his face, before the scenery is disappearing.

Rhys reappears next to him, all slumped over and wide eyed with his jaw still gaping, and he looks at Jack like he saw the end of the world.

They don’t talk about it.

* * *

“Do I  _haaave_ to go up there?” Gortys squeaks out, eyes wide as she stares up at where Jack has led them towards, and he answers before Fiona can even get the chance to.

“Nono, sweetie, either me or Fiona are gonna go up there, okay? You stay here and be safe and protect the one who stayed behind.” He looks up at the trapdoor and flinches at the endless amount of blades there.

Oh god no, there is no way he’s going to send Gortys up there _at all._ What kind of monster would he be? He exhales, and looks at Fiona, and she glares at him. “I ain’t going up there.” She looks back up at the trapdoor, flinches, and then looks around. “What are we… looking for, exactly? I mean, there should be a way to send you up there without killing you, right?”

“First, rude.” Jack murmurs. “Well, I’m stronger than you anyway, so it makes sense to send me up there. And we’re… looking for something to turn the trap _off—_ “ he stops when he sees a lever and stands up. He pets Gortys before he heads over to the lever, pushes it up, and listens to it slowly descend.

The trapdoor comes to a stop, and he and Fiona and share a look.

“Well,” Fiona begins, a cheeky grin on her face, “good luck.”

He sneers at her and turns around, and his expression softens up when he sees Gortys. “Hey, Gortys- can you throw me up there?”

“No problem!”

Which—it isn’t. She ends up throwing him up into the tunnel with _more force_ than he expects, and he manages to grab onto the ladder just in time. He hangs onto it for dear life, because he did not sign up for this, and he lets out the tiniest of cries.

Well, time to start climbing. He ignores the beeping of his com and the yells from Fiona, and Jack feels sweat form on his body as he climbs up past all the deadly… _deadly_ blades.

He hates his life.

Getting to the door atop the trapdoor [… duh], Jack pushes it off with ease and climbs up. Grunting, he stands up, dusts himself up, and looks up—

Then it finally hits him where he is. “Holy shit.” Jack says as he takes in the office. It’s bathed in blue and purple hues, the colours covering the entire office like long, fine silk. There’s a statue of Atlas in one of the fountains, and in the other fountain is a faceless statue holding up a… cup, he wants to say.

It’s a genderless, faceless statue, staring up at the ceiling with one hand holding a cup up towards the ceiling, and it looks like it’s ‘overflowing’ with something. There are flowers hanging off of both statues, probably fake because Jack doubts that they’d live this long without proper care, and he subconsciously takes a few steps down the stairs.

There’s a small area for Sheila, the skag. It’s abandoned, but it definitely looks like some sort of isolated area for Rhys’s pet; there’s a food bowl still there, and what looks to be an absurdly realistic skull. His lips are hanging open ever so slightly and he looks at the walls eagerly—

Posters of rival companies [one per company that is], their own posters, motivational posters and very few paintings hang on the wall, and Rhys is laughing behind him. “You made it.” Rhys says, his tone proud. “Welcome to my office. Hopefully it’s everything you thought it’d be.”

“It’s beyond that.” Jack says, the softest he’s ever been in a long time, and he turns around to face Rhys’s smiling self. “I always hoped I’d come here, presentin’ my work and shit. Then that planet had to take you ‘way.” Jack murmurs as he makes his way back up the stairs and towards the desk—

It’s surprisingly clean. It’s an ornate thing, made from the rarest wood of Epitah [according to Rhys in his ECHOeye], and there is a long, thin and looping design of flora and jewellery on it. He places his cybernetic hand on it, and it—it doesn’t seem real for him to finally be in here.

“The Gortys project should be over there.” Rhys says, surprising Jack out of his thoughts, and he looks over to where Rhys is pointing at.  It looks like a trophy case, full of assorted ornaments and whatnot, and Jack looks back to Rhys. He’s sitting in his, of course, pink chair now; he’s slumped forward, one leg lying flat atop the other, his elbows are resting on the desk and his hands are folded under his chin.

There’s a thoughtful expression on Rhys’s face, and he doesn’t seem to take notice of Jack looking at him at all. He decides to leave him to it, knowing better than to bother the CEO when he’s busy with… whatever, and heads over to the trophy case.

Rhys seems to notice that, however, and he’s appearing at the case. He leans against it, crosses his arms, and watches Jack look through his stuff. He brings Gortys up on his cybernetic arm and he smiles at her, at her enthusiasm, and starts to show her the objects on the trophy case.

There are a few odd things—some containers of stuff that Rhys doesn’t know anything about, admitted by himself– that he doesn’t really recognise and a few things that he does –  a nine-tails whip that used to belong to Yvette, a scratched and bloodied up shoulder pad that also used to belong to Vaughn, and Rhys’s old arm.

He takes Gortys over them until she gasps and points at a small, very small one. It’s a small u-shaped thing, pastel pink and yellow, with a pretty, floating ball inside of it. He picks it up, arches his eyebrow, and puts it away after he ends the call with Gortys.

“Right, I got what I need.” Jack murmurs. “Hey, pumpkin, how do I open up the trapdoor?” he calls out as he makes his way back up the stairs, Rhys having gone back to sitting on his chair.

He doesn’t really seem to be looking at Jack when he approaches, and it feels like time comes to a stop when he slowly stands up. He looks over at Jack, his expression solemn for a split second before a smirk spreads wide on Rhys’s face. “The chair is yours, Jack.” Gesturing over to it, Jack feels—

Well. Jack’s feeling a lot of things right now. He looks over at Rhys, takes in his nod and the way his smirk seems to relax into a smile, and Jack’s breath hitches. He makes himself comfortable on the chair, a groan immediately escaping him and he shudders.

 _Shit._ He feels… **_fantastic._** “Good-“ Jack moans out as he melts into the chair, his entire world slow and _good_ as he sits there. Rhys is sitting in the chair across from Jack, a grin on his face. “That’s the contact activated dopamine injectors,” he says, “a small reward for all the bullshit you went through, huh?”

“Mhm.” Jack manages out, and looks at Rhys with a relaxed smile and lidded eyes. “Nice reward. Feel like a _king._ ”

“I prefer… emperor, but king suits you just fine, Jack.” Rhys teases, and Jack’s face hurts from smiling so wide. “You’re… going to go after the vault, aren’t you?” he asks suddenly, expression solemn and voice sad, and Jack’s brow furrows. “It… it can wait, can’t it?”

“Rhys?”

“I’ve been… thinking about this for a good while, Jack.” Rhys says, ever so softly, as though he’s--- scared, Jack wants to say. “And I think… I think you should know what I’ve been thinking about.” He looks up at him, eyes wide and expression serious. “Atlas hasn’t had a CEO in… what, a year?”

Jack licks his lips. “Yeah. A year.”

“That’s a long time to live without a CEO, don’t you think?” Jack nods. “If I were to tell you… that you could have the power I had in this room – the power to rule and do everything I could do, what would you do with it?”

He doesn’t even stop to think about it. “I’d save Pandora.” Jack begins, his speech firmer now. “It’s a shitty, _shitty_ place full of—full of bandits forcing others to become bandits. Ain’t no place to live in.”

Rhys flashes him a brilliant smile at that. “We will fix Pandora,” Rhys coos out, “because I do agree. Too many bad things on that place—and… well, maybe you can succeed where I failed.” He breathes out an easy, if not… sad laughter, and he’s shaking his head. “All I wanted to do was **_save Pandora._** Make it a better place to live.”

Furrowing his brows, Jack doesn’t say anything to the man before him. “But now… we’re here. I’m back in my office— _my home,_ practically, again.” He stands up from the chair and walks around over to Jack. He rests one hand on Jack’s shoulder, and he looks up at Rhys. “What do you say, Jack?”

“Do you wanna rule Atlas? Together? We’ll fix Pandora, fix the world. We’ll be heroes.”

His eyes widen.

“ **Yes.** ” Jack says, and Rhys’s eyes widen and his lips part into the widest, happiest grin he’s ever seen. “I’ll rule Atlas— _damn right_ we’re gonna be heroes.”

A hand rests on his cheek and even though it’s not real, even though it’s not there, Jack lets Rhys tilt his head to look up at him. “You—you have no clue how _happy_ you’ve made me, Jack.” Rhys says, and Jack returns the enthusiasm as best he can.

“What do I have to do?” He asks, finally, and Rhys leans in close before he backs away.

“Press that button.” Jack presses down on where Rhys is pointing at, and he jolts when he hears something click and clink outta the chair. He looks to his left, at a… drive, he thinks, that uncurls itself from the chair. “All you have to do is plug that in, Jack. You’ll upload me into Hesperides, and I’ll be able to _help_ you out even more than if I’m just in your head.”

He raises his hand and grabs at the drive, winces as it reveals itself even further, and he brings it down to the port in his neck. Looking to his right, Rhys has his hands pressed together, fingers interlaced, and he’s looking at Jack with glee written all over him.

All his hesitation immediately melts away at the sight of the happy CEO and he presses the drive in. It’s uncomfortable, it’s heavy, but it’s the reason why _Rhys_ is so _damn happy ­_ – because _Jack_ is able to plug it in, upload him into Hesperides, and…

And ultimately, **_Jack is the one making Rhys happy._** So what if it’s uncomfortable? His discomfort doesn’t matter right now.

“Jack?” Fiona’s voice rings out in his ears, “what’s taking so long? Something happen?”

Rhys is smiling at him so sweetly.

“All good,” Jack responds, almost dreamily, “just getting into position.”

The drive removes itself from his port soon enough and it curls back into the chair, and Jack looks around the office. Rhys is laughing next to him, his form falling apart before completely _vanishing,_ and Jack can hear laughter throughout the office. He stands up from the chair, looks around for the source of the laughter, and his eyes focus on the monitor in the office.

Rhys is on it. He’s laughing loudly, his back facing Jack and his hands on his mouth, from what he can tell, and he’s _laughing._ His body shakes with the full force of his mirth, and Jack shrugs but grins as he does.

“ ** _Finally! Finally!_** ” Rhys’s voice rings out, clear and loud in the office, filled with a manic joy that shakes up inside of Jack’s bones. “I’m in _here!_ I’m **back!** Back where I belong! I think it’s time I make an announcement, don’t you think!?” Before Jack can even understand what’s happening, Rhys is talking again. “ _Hello Hesperides! Have you missed me? I sure as hell haven’t missed **you! All of you—** oh, you should be grateful I’m in such a good mood!”_

_“Your emperor is back, sweethearts! And I would never have been able to get here without the help of a devoted, important, and dedicated Atlas employee! Pay attention, because you all have a new CEO to report to.”_

_“Say hello to your new President Jack!”_

At the announcement, Jack feels his heart stop. This is—is this—he can’t even _think_ properly, let alone even try and pretend he understands what is happening. It’s happening—holy shit. He’s shaking—he thinks he’s shaking? He’s not sure—

 “Take it in—take it in Jack! This—this office—this office is _yours_ now!”

“… This is… mine.” Jack repeats as he turns around to face Elpis, the beautiful colours of the moon embracing him with its light. “This is… this is mine.”

“Yes!” Rhys practically _yells_ in agreement. “All this—this mess to get here, the awful, awful things that have happened to us— _all for this! **Take it all in, Jack!**_ President Jack has such a _wonderful_ name to it, doesn’t it?”

**_“President Jack and Rhys of Atlas, being right where they belong—saving the world! We’re heroes, Jack, heroes!”_ **

His laughter echoes throughout the office, stretching out into the halls of every floor of Hesperides. It bounces off of the walls, filling the station with his manic joy all over again, and a collective shudder passes through the workers of Hesperides.

Rhys laughs and laughs and laughs; a sound that echoes and stretches, goes on and on, and Jack can’t help but grin in smug satisfaction.

“Yeah. _Heroes._ I like the sound of that.” Jack says as he looks up at the cracked surface of Elpis, at the view of his new office…

And he laughs, too.


	5. Morn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally posted the ending to this again, wow. Like every other chapter, this has been refined a bit and reposted. Please note that this does not follow the original ending and there are **major character deaths** in this chapter.

There’s music playing in the office now, and Rhys is spreading his arms in the large screen on the view to Elpis. “I am _so glad_ Yvette convinced me to keep this!” He cries out, and he claps his hands together. Jack jolts as the lights of the office finally turn on, a dim blue that only seems to exist to match the glow of Elpis.

It mixes in with the colours already there, yet makes the office all the more brighter, and Jack moves around the office to – to actually take this in. It’s all too much, when Jack pauses for but a fraction of a second to consider it—this office has been _given_ to him, and something aches in his chest when he looks up at the projection of his boss. His hero has given him the office of his dreams, and Jack has to hide the manic grin that wants to spread on his face as he walks.

His footsteps echo loudly in the office, a sort of… a sort of reminder that this place is his—his and Rhys’s, because he knows full well that he can’t have gotten here without the CEO—the CEO who is now _outside_ of his head, where everyone can see him now.

“Holy shit.” Jack says to nobody, and Rhys laughs at his shock. “This is… actually mine. Ours—this office is ours!” Jack says when he looks up at the monitor that Rhys has projected himself onto. He’s crossing his arms in front of him, a shark’s grin on his face as he regards Jack. “I’ve _dreamt_ of this—holy shit, I dreamt of being— _being the god damn CEO because I deserve this!”_

Something in Rhys lights up then, glowing and excited, and his eyes widen then. “Yes!” He says loudly in agreement, full of giggles and glee and mirth, “yes! You _do_ deserve it, don’t you? You’ve been—such a good _sport_ about all this.” Something in Rhys’s voice goes dark, and Jack arches an eyebrow at him.

Clapping his hands together, the music gets a little bit louder and Rhys snickers as a disco ball descends from the ceiling. “Vaughn actually—Vaughn actually kept this! It’s still _ridiculous_ but I cannot believe that Yvette didn’t catch this. I told her to get rid of it— oh god—I can’t _wait_ to see Yvette and Vaughn again! Oh, Jack,” Rhys sighs, “I can’t _wait_ for you to meet them as well.”

“Or… have you already? I’ve been so very out of loop with… being dead, and all. I don’t actually know what’s happened.” Rhys seems to sober up at his own realisation, and Jack shifts around and rubs the back of his head. “ _How_ have my left and right hands been doing?”

“Uh.” Jack begins, and he winces when Rhys looks at him incredulously. “With you… dead. They sorta… ran… the place?” He shrugs at that and his shoulders slump when Rhys seems to smile at that. “But… I’m gonna be running this now.”

The grin on Rhys’s lips melt into a simple, small smile; welcoming and kind. “That you are.” Rhys coos out, words dripping in venomous honey, and Jack is looking up at the projection of Rhys with wide eyes. “But before… we can actually _do_ anything; we do have some things we need to get outta the way, don’t we?”

It takes Jack some time to realise what Rhys means, and his eyes widen. “Shit.” He hisses, “the Gortys project—“

“And the little bandits that followed after us like _pa—_ lost, hopeless puppies _._ That’s what they all are in the end…” he seems to mellow out as he talks, the projection turning around so that Jack is staring at his back and his hands are on—his hips, he’s assuming. “Always _clinging_ to the backs of others and **_draining_** them of what makes them… them.”

“That’s what happened to Pandora, Jack.” Rhys turns to look at him, his hands still on his hips and his gaze staring into the distance, expression blank. “All I _**ever**_ wanted to do was save Pandora but then—then the people who were supposed to— _help me_ betrayed me.”

Something in Jack tells him that he should change the topic—talk about something else. Go back to the Gortys project—but a small part of him is hesitant. There’s a sad look on the CEO’s face, as though he’s gone through hell and back… and Jack believes that.

He honest to god feels _sad_ for the man in the monitor. Standing – or well, somewhat – in front of him isn’t a ruthless man. Jack swallows audibly, and that seems to catches Rhys’s attention. Noticing the mood of the room then, the CEO grins and claps his hands together. “Sorry, sorry, Jack. Sometimes you just—start thinking when you’re at ‘home’. Well, not really _home_ per se; I live in a suite. But you know how it is.”

“I get it, pumpkin, no need to explain yourself to me.” He’s sure Angel has more often than not seen Jack in… not so great moments. Moments she doesn’t _understand_ but doesn’t like seeing her dad upset.

God, Jack doesn’t deserve her.

“About—Fiona and the rest…” Jack begins, and Rhys tsks and interrupts him. “We need to do your first action as a CEO, honey! I’ve been so caught up in myself and the bandits that—well, that I forgot to let you _do_ what you _rightly deserve._ Go on, back to my desk with you. We’re gonna do your first executive order as _the CEO of Atlas!”_

The excitement in Rhys’s voice is contagious, and Jack finds himself buzzing with the energy again as he makes his way up the steps towards Rhys’s desk again. He stares at the screen that pops up before him, and Rhys snaps his fingers. “Now, you see, I’m just gonna give you three things to do for now. You can do all the crazy stuff later, okay? Okay, good. Now, we can have some pizza.”

“Pizza?” Jack echoes, and a pizza icon pops up right after he says it. He looks up at Rhys and arches his eyebrow.

“You haven’t had anything good to eat lately, honey, and I don’t want you to be starving—of course, you can always have pizza _later._ Or you can have some of the good food if you don’t want pizza now.” Rhys answers, and he’s tilting his head to the side and giving Jack a charming smile. “You can… _fire_ all of the damn accountants. All of them. _Because what the hell, fingerguns._ Or you can moonshot-“

“I can moonshot someplace?!” Jack interrupts and, without even giving Rhys some time to comprehend it, he’s pressing the command for a moonshot and he’s grinning widely up at Rhys. “I think… _Prosperity’s Junction_ is a good place to moonshot, don’cha think cupcake? Full of damn _assholes_ and how this all began in the first place. Pandora’s better off without that place.”

And Rhys is just… just watching him as this all occurs. He’s shaking he thinks—can feel his bones quivering, or maybe he’s just imagining it, from _finally_ being able to get rid of _one_ place full of scum on that planet. His heart is pounding against his chest as he hears the moonshot cannon being fired, and he looks up at the surprised projection of Rhys.

There’s a heavy silence that hangs over them, and Rhys is just wide-eyed and staring at him. “I honestly,” Rhys begins, voice soft, “expected you to grab some pizza, or maybe even _fire_ the accountants. I did not expect you to straight-up _moonshot_ a settlement.”

Jack can only grin sheepishly at Rhys, and he licks his suddenly dry lips as Rhys brings his hands together. “I can already _tell,_ Jack, that you’re going to make me _so proud.”_ Rhys purrs and Jack’s heart seems to come to a sudden stop. “Already you’re doing some good for Pandora and- with me by your side—we’ll both make Pandora a better place, don’t you think?”

“We’re gonna be the heroes Pandora deserves.” Jack finishes for Rhys softly.

* * *

Of course, they still need to do something about a few issues.

Gortys; she’s still on the space station, in the hands of those damn bandits, and there’s also the fact that Fiona and Sasha and August here. Mustachio and Burnt Face are probably here too, so those are a few other things he has to worry about.

However, _none_ of them are vault hunters. He has to repeat that to himself; _none_ of them are vault hunters and he’s sure that Atlas can more than deal with them. Vault hunters are something else entirely; they have a burning determination to them that makes them seem almost invincible, inspiring a sort of fear and clumsiness in their enemies that makes them fail.

Jack supposes that is what sets vault hunters apart from everyone else.

He sits in the chair – god, it feels good to be able to relax in something so comfortable – and the music has stopped by now. The disco ball has retreated as well, and Rhys is humming to himself as Jack sits there, thinking. They don’t have a lot of time, and Rhys is glancing at him every once in a while to make sure Jack knows that.

“Okay,” he begins, “I have the final Gortys upgrade—“

“Which, honey, I do _not_ recommend attaching to Gortys while she’s still on the space station.” Rhys suddenly hisses out, his eyes narrowing. “I _worked_ with Hyperion for a while- I was able to check their documents on Gortys before they were all destroyed.”

“… Why?”

“She’ll be too big for the space station to handle, Jack.” Rhys says, his tone final, and he doesn’t push him after that. “You’re going to have to keep the upgrade away from her, I’m sorry to say.”

Jack shrugs. “S’not that bad. Two-outta-three’s good enough still.” Jack grumbles out. “I need to get back at Willy though- I don’t want him _dead_ or anything.”

“A shame.” Rhys comments. Jack opts to ignore that.

Jack rubs at his nose, eyes focusing elsewhere before he continues talking. “I just—I just want him locked up. Given the shittiest food and the dirtiest water. Freakin’ betrayed me for _money…_ all because he was certain I’d _die_ on Pandora.”

At that, Rhys is quiet. He looks at Jack with an oddly serene expression, but Jack doesn’t push it. He spins around in the chair, his mind still racing with thoughts. “I have no clue what we’re gonna tell Gortys—“

“You’ve been nicer to Gortys than anyone else, sweetheart.” Rhys interrupts, his voice suddenly sharp. “You tell her that she’s gonna stay with us for a bit, and that she sadly can’t see Fiona or Sasha anymore because they did some _bad things_ and she’ll understand. She’s like a kid—and you’re _very_ good with kids, Jack.” There’s something accusatory in Rhys’s voice now, suspicion riding high, and numbness spreads across Jack’s chest.

He licks his dry lips again. “Yeah. Yeah I can—I can tell her that. She’ll be happier _here_ than back on Pandora, anyway.”

“We can kill off Finch, Kroger and August, then. Capturing them should be easy— _very_ easy.” Rhys is projecting behind Jack now and he plants his feet down firmly so that the chair stops spinning. He’s—

Well.

There’s something powerful about the CEO being so large like that; even if he’s nothing but an AI on some sort of monitor. His shoulders slump a little bit and he sinks into the chair ever so slightly, and Rhys _smiles_ at him with his teeth.

But he doesn’t say a thing about it. Rhys’s eyes burn into Jack’s very being, something cruel and _glowing,_ and Jack stares back up with his own wide eyes-

One his own, and one that wholly belongs to Rhys. It’s the same with his arms. One his own, and one that wholly belongs to Rhys.

It’s always half and half.

“What should we do about Fiona and Sasha?” Jack asks after a bit of silence because Rhys is waiting—waiting for _him_ to say something. Jack’s in the seat now, Jack’s on equal levels with Rhys now, and Rhys is—

Jack has to look down, because he almost feels ashamed. _Almost._ But something in Rhys’s eyes command him to look down for a bit, anyway. “What are you doing, honey?” Rhys asks, “look at me. There’s no need to shy away—especially when you are _everything **but** shy._”

“That’s a good boy,” Rhys purrs out when Jack obeys, “now… with those two—well. They have been the ones giving you the most trouble, right? Sure, if it wasn’t for them you and I would never meet… it’d probably be a tragedy, maybe. I’m not sure. Nakayama is dead, right?” Jack nods. Rhys breathes a sigh of relief. “Good, I hated that asshole. Anyway, as I was saying… ah, yes. We can’t actually forget that it’s also because of _them_ that that… **Vallory** has gotten involved, that your Nisha is _gone—“_

At the mention of Nisha, Jack tenses up. He clenches his hands into tight fists and—

Nisha is still _out there_ on Pandora. “We gotta find her.” Jack says, grimly, and he can’t help but exhale in relief when Rhys nods. “Of course we will, honey,” Rhys responds, “but we have bigger fish to fry.”

“Where was I? Oh yes, those two… _con sisters._ Ugh, even their profession is par— _indicative_ of the type of persons you can find on Pandora.” He shakes his head. “You’re going to have the honour of killing them, Jack.” Rhys says sweetly, and Jack’s eyes widen.

“You are going to be a _hero,_ honey, and _heroes can’t let villains live.”_

* * *

For the first time in ever, Jack gets to  _finally_ meet the two at the top. The barrier on Rhys’s office is gone, and they’re apparently making their way here. Atlas officers are also off looking for August, Burnt Face and Mustachio, and Jack’s busy staring at his hands.

He needs to go back to Angel, he thinks, but Rhys doesn’t know about her just yet—or maybe he does. He doesn’t really know—but Jack needs to go back to his darling girl. Is she scared right now? Jack doesn’t think so; he has the little Babysitter Bot taking care of Angel, and he’s often gone for days at a time trying to get his work done, so the loneliness isn’t something that will affect her… much, hopefully.

Being at the bottom of the ladder often means he’d fall asleep at his cubicle instead of going back to his flat on time. _‘Thank god for Atlas’s child care program.’_ Jack thinks with a relieved sigh.

“I told them to take their time getting here.” Rhys says softly and he looks over to Jack. “You and I have something to talk about, honey.”

He tenses up.

“Now earlier today, I asked you a question and you told me—well, you told me that Nisha was the second most important person in your life. Of course, now that we’re CEOs in criiiime, partners, that sort of stuff… I need to know who the first most important person is if we’re going to get anywhere. I’d be very upset if you don’t tell me.”

Jack looks away for a moment, breathes in and out deeply and tries to – to consider it. Rhys is the CEO—all he has ever done is protect them all, hasn’t he?

He rubs the back of his head. “I have… I have a girl—daughter. Her name’s Angel. She’s eight.” The atmosphere in the room eases up at the admission, a sort of soft thing falling over all of them, and Jack looks up to see the intense gaze of his boss drilling holes into him. “She’s the most important damn thing I have in my entire life.”

Jack inhales shakily. “I wouldn’t know what I’d do without her.”

When he doesn’t say any more after that, Rhys smiles at him. It’s a wide smile that shows off the upper row of his teeth, looking awfully sharp and reminding him of a shark’s, and Jack can’t help the chill that runs through his entire body.

“See, Jack? That wasn’t so hard now, was it? I just needed to make sure that you trusted me.”

He shrugs and looks away.

There’s silence after that, broken only by the fact that Rhys is still humming and now dancing to himself again. Though Rhys is absolutely relaxed, no doubt about it, Jack can’t help but fidget from the tight coil in his stomach.

Yvette and Vaughn are going to be coming here soon.

Part of the top three.

They are ex-vault hunters that, since Rhys’s death, are impossible to reach; always holing up everywhere _but_ his office, doing Rhys’s work, and killing anyone that bothers them. Now he’s actually going to meet them—and Jack isn’t going to lie, his hero worship may extend, slightly, towards those two.

The door to Rhys’s office slides open and familiar faces from familiar posters stand against the bright light that filters into the office. Vaughn takes one step forward, his boots resounding loudly and heavily in the office, and Yvette follows after him. Her own boots click and clack with absolutely _power_ as she marches into the office, her posture confident while Vaughn slouches slightly.

There’s something deadly in their gazes, the light reflecting on them both _just right_ to make them look like serial killers from a movie, but it quickly melts away when they see Rhys projected behind Jack.

Their joy is palpable as they shove Jack away, nearly causing him and the chair to crash and fall, and they’re immediately focusing on Rhys and talking to him even though Jack is _right there._

But… whatever they’re talking about, Jack can’t focus on it. He rolls the chair away from them a little bit more, stands up, and walks over to Rhys’s trophy case. He’s not really staring at anything in particular, no—he just… needs a chance to think.

Over the excited chatter behind him, Jack’s thought falls on what he’s supposed to do.

He needs to kill Sasha and Fiona. He’s going to be the one to pull the trigger on them—he’s going to be the one that kills them. Something in his gut churns at that but a voice inside of him, the voice that he’s been listening to every time he’s been exposed to unneeded violence on Pandora, reminds him that Fiona and Sasha are just as bad as everyone else on Pandora.

They’ve been bandits since they were young, if he remembers his ECHOeye correctly. But that doesn’t erase the fact that Pandora _made_ them into bandits—

But they’re just bad as—fuck, Jack doesn’t even know what they’re as bad as. Maybe they’re just as bad as the other bandits on Pandora. Nothing sets them apart, not even that they live in Hollow Point—

Which is also full of psychos, anyway. Whiiich means he has to wipe that place out, because psychos are… one of Pandora’s other blight on the planet—

“Jack?” Rhys calls out. “Are you ready? We’re halfway done on our end.”

 “They’ve captured a blond man, won’t give his name away but he wields a Jakobs gun. We have… a Wilhelm in our holding cells too. The sisters were with him, but they ran off.” Yvette clarifies, her voice firm and demanding respect, and Jack turns to face them both.

Vaughn takes a step forward; he’s so shockingly small, and yet Jack has the feeling that that small man won’t hesitate to snap his neck. “They’re going to get everyone else too. We don’t think this… Finch and Kroger know that the blond—August, right?—is captured. The sisters are gonna be next.”

“You should take the conference call maybe, Jack.” Rhys says as he points to the trophy case, much to the alarm of both Vaughn and Yvette. “Or maybe you want to kill them with just a plain Atlas gun? Let them know they’re not _that_ worth it. After all, they’re the lowest form of bandits.”

He looks away at that, his arms crossing in front of him as he thinks to himself. _‘The lowest form of bandits. The conference call—‘_ he stares at the trophy case, at the only gun on the case wall, takes in the beauty of it and…

“I’ll just use a normal gun.” Jack says softly, and Rhys laughs.

There’s a sigh of relief from both Yvette and Vaughn, and all attention shifts away from Jack and back to Rhys. He can’t help but stare at the conference call once the attention is no longer on him, wondering—just wondering to himself, for a little while.

* * *

The halls of Hesperides seem to just echo with Jack’s footsteps. Rhys isn’t really  _with him_ right now, and it feels awfully empty to walk the halls knowing that he’s watching Jack from his office or something. Vaughn and Yvette are leading him away, and his heart is pounding against his chest.

Before they left, they decide to show him how to use the gun. It’s mostly out of their own uncertainty that they teach him how to use it, refusing to believe that Jack even took any of the gun classes on this space station, despite the fact that it’s on his files that he took them.

It’s illegal to carry a gun around without a ‘license’ in Hesperides, as it is. It’s a way to keep things from escalating, or so they try at least, and the punishment for carrying a gun without a license is…

Well. _Severe_ is one way to put it nicely _._

And Jack has come from a planet where, eventually, gunfire has become the norm [corrupt government and all not really _caring_ about safety as much as it did its own ease] and everyone there carries a gun to ensure their own safety.

Trusting the police force is a death sentence. No one is going to help you from there—so you help yourself, or you die. It’s funny; living there is _peaceful—_ **if** you’re rich.

Jack sure as hell isn’t. Not yet, anyway.

He can’t repeat to himself how lucky he is that he manages to get Angel outta there, because he can’t stand the idea of her having to learn how to use a gun so young just in case Jack is at work and someone tries to break in.

 _‘But don’t the kids of Pandora do that? Learn to shoot at a pitifully young age?’_ a traitorous voice nags at him from the back of his head, sounding awfully like Fiona’s voice, and Jack shoves it away immediately when he hears her voice in his head.

Yeah. That decides it.

Fiona’s going out first.

* * *

“Let— _let me go, you damn assholes!”_ Sasha yells just as Jack turns a corner to see both Fiona and Sasha on their knees, having been apprehended by Atlas officers, and he thinks that it’s… weird to see them that way. On Pandora, they’re always so busy bossing him around that now that they’re no longer in some form of ‘power’, Jack feels…

Well. He feels something, and it’s nothing he likes and nothing he can describe. She catches sight of him almost immediately, and the glare on her face seems to just get worse. “You – you god damn **_asshole!_** We should’ve known better than to trust some immoral, disgusting _Atlas stooge!_ You were waiting for this, weren’t you!?”

Someone smacks her hard across the face to silence her, and Jack is wincing. “Wow, I practically felt that. I kinda wanna say I’m—“ he hesitates, “I’m sorry about that, cupcake, buuuut I’m not.” Jack says as he slowly, very carefully, makes his way over to Sasha, and he pretends that his voice doesn’t get high-pitched around the ‘sorry’.

Fiona’s glaring at him, her teeth grinding against each other to the point that Jack is sure she’s going to grind them away, and he squats a small distance away from Sasha.  “So… how’s it goooing? I’ve got it going great myself, actually.”

“You’re an _asshole._ ” Sasha practically yells out.

“Yeah, thought you’d say that.” Jack falters, but immediately afterwards he grins widely at her, and Sasha looks like she’s about to spit on him, so he hastily stands up and moves away from her. “So… tried to escape and failed, huh?”

“No thanks to _you,_ you _lying Atlas_ **_scumbag!”_** Fiona finally yells out, and Jack’s not even reacting to her. One of the Atlas officers smacks her, too, and she’s groaning in response to that. “Seriously?! Do you guys not know how to do anything else _besides_ slap people in the face so hard I nearly lost my freaking teeth!? _Assholes.”_

Jack stares at Sasha for a bit and she snarls at him, looking like a frightened animal pushed into a corner, and he quickly makes his way over to Fiona before the weird feeling from before gets worse. He reaches for the holster on his upper thigh and pulls out the standard, ‘white’ level Atlas gun, and Fiona’s expression of anger immediately twists into that of surprise and horror.

“Wait.” Fiona barks out.

He hums and checks for what kind of gun it is, and he hums to himself when he sees that it’s a corrosive. He prefers shock, but corrosive is just as fine.

“Jack—Jack _wait,_ let’s talk this out—we can talk this _out!_ ” Fiona begs, her voice getting higher and higher pitched as she talks.

Sasha’s staring in quiet shock, mouth gaping and her eyes wide open. Jack ignores her words, ignores Sasha’s expression, and instead focuses on aiming the gun in between Fiona’s eyes. She’s _not_ wearing a shield, thank the heavens for that, so this should be easy.

“Nonono, Jack—Jack don’t _do this—_ I’m sorry! Okay? I’m sorry! Don’t do th-“

He squeezes the trigger and Fiona’s not talking anymore. “Sorry, kitten.” Jack says, his voice awfully quiet and solemn as he turns to look at Sasha. “You’re next.”

It’s funny. Jack expects to at least feel bad at first. Maybe guilty as he steps over to Sasha, getting ready to kill her off too.

No. As he squeezes the trigger again, with Sasha hurdling insults his way, Jack feels awfully _righteous._

* * *

He doesn’t know when it happens, but Yvette and Vaughn both lead him back to the office. They’re bowing very briefly at Rhys as they leave, the door sliding shut behind them and locking, and Jack is sitting on the chair again.

“How do you feel, champ?” Rhys coos out, his arms crossed in front of him as he looks down at Jack. “I saw you killin’ those girls—without even changing your expression! I’m _so proud of you,_ but I gotta know, buddy. How _do you feel?”_

It takes Jack some time to answer, because he’s trying to find the words for it. Excited? Exhilarated? Powerful? Absolutely fantastic? Amazing?

“It felt good.” Jack says, simply, and he shudders. “Damn I—I could get used to this. Going down there and—and killing bandits myself. No wonder everyone wants to be a vault hunter—it feels _damn great._ ”

Rhys’s expression falls, becoming more pensive than anything. “Well, I don’t think a vault hunter is befitting of you, honestly, but I’ll more than happily let you run ‘round Pandora, killin’ bandits to your hearts’ content.”

Jack’s grinning up at him. “You’d let me?” he says with a shaky voice, something coiling in his stomach and ready to break out as Jack’s entire body tries to get over the rush of adrenaline. It’s _still_ pumping in his blood, even though he is sure it took them some time to get to the office.

He’s still _reeling_ from how great it felt, and Rhys tsks. “Jack, _honey,_ you’re the CEO of Atlas now.” he’s practically chastising Jack for asking such a question, and Jack doesn’t even _give a shit._ “You can do _whatever_ you’d like, and all you _really_ have to do is succeed where I failed.”

“You and I are going to go _so many places,_ Jack. I can tell already.”

For whatever reason, Jack starts laughing. It catches even Rhys off-guard, but he just— _everything about this is so damn funny!_ Everything about this is so perfect, that Jack can’t’ help but laugh. He buries his face in his palms, trying to stifle himself, but it seems the laughter is slipping through the spaces in between his fingers.

He—he actually _killed someone_ with his own two hands. This is— _different_ from airlocking them. He _killed_ someone. Actually shot them **_dead._**

The laughter pours out of him, seemingly endless even when he’s running out of breath and his stomach is hurting, and Rhys just smiles at him as he laughs.

Jack laughs like blue, electric smoke, and his fingers thrum with energy.

Atlas is _his._ He’s the CEO now [alongside Rhys, of course] and he’s finally, _finally_ going to make this world a better place for Angel to live in.

He’s going to make sure of that.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to know if you enjoyed the fic; whether you've just read this or have read it before, I would appreciate knowing.
> 
>  
> 
> ****  
> Edit: Please do not under any circumstances roleplay the Rhys from this AU, roleplay the Jack from this AU, or use this plot in anything without asking me first. Please do not make fanart of this without asking either.  
>  ****


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